3 ms·
The thing is sometimes hard things are actually easy because there is a simple solution that hasn't been tried because people haven't worked on the problem beca
by Rerarom 7y ago
The thing is sometimes hard things are actually easy because there is a simple solution that hasn't been tried because people haven't worked on the problem because it seems hard and they don't feel smart enough.
The trick is to recognize these situations.
- artpi 7y agoThat has been my experience as well!
- bpt3 7y agoThis is excellent advice. I hope the author updates the article to explicitly include this suggestion, and I'll be looking for opportunities where this misunderstanding exists.
- artpi 7y agoI will, noted!
- nathan_compton 7y agoIs it excellent or a clever way of phrasing something empty? Presumably identifying hard problems that are actually easy problems is itself a hard problem, otherwise someone would have surely already figured it out (if the ends are valuable). I mean its great if you can figure out such a situation, but how much time should you spin your wheels trying to find an easy solution to a hard problem before you're wasting your time? Also a hard problem exactly because its hard to figure out how hard a hard problem really is.
- bpt3 7y agoI disagree. In my experience there are plenty of "hard" problems within organizations that in reality aren't actually hard to solve. The issue is that the organization has created policies or processes that make the problem hard to solve, and breaking through those artificial barriers can be fairly simple once you find the right approach. Also, it's much lower risk to spend a limited amount of time exploring whether there are untried solutions to a "hard" problem than it is to publicly declare war on an actual hard problem and hope you find a solution.
- Rerarom 7y agoNote that I was thinking of problems in terms of scientific research rather than business stuff but it was intentionally vague so that people can apply it to their own domain.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]