6 ms·

How To Solve Problems Like Sherlock Holmes

54 points by nikunjk 14y ago

elliptic 14y ago
I prefer to solve problems like Hercule Poirot
- sp332 14y ago
  I like Columbo's method: just know the answer ahead of time.
  - dfxm12 14y ago
    In all seriousness, this is Sherlock Holmes' method too. It's easy to make brilliant deductions when you are a character in a piece of fiction whose story has been completely laid out.
    - jerf 14y ago
      “[Samuel Vimes] had a jaundiced view of Clues. He instinctively distrusted them. They got in the way. “And he distrusted the sort of person who’d take one look at another man and say in a lordly voice to his companion, “Ah, my dear sir, I can tell you nothing except that he is a left-handed stonemason who has spent some years in the merchant navy and has recently fallen on hard times,” and then unroll a lot of supercilious commentary about calluses and stance and the state of a man’s boots, when exactly the same comments could apply to a man who was wearing his old clothes because he’d been doing a spot of home bricklaying for a new barbecue pit, and had been tattooed once when he was drunk and seventeen and in fact got seasick on wet pavement. What arrogance! What an insult to the rich and chaotic variety of the human experience!” - Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay Sherlock Holmes is fun to read, but completely, utterly unrealistic.
      - majormajor 14y ago
        Heh, I had separately posted this up above, but I suppose I can go delete that one and just upvote this one instead. :)
    - astrobe_ 14y ago
      In all seriousness E.A. Poe and his C. Auguste Dupin is the Father of the genre.
      - leejoramo 14y ago
        'You remind me of Edgar Allan Poe's Dupin. I had no idea that such individuals did exist out of stories.' Dr. John Watson Quote -A Study in Scarlet
    - jdechko 14y ago
      As much as I liked reading the Holmes' stories, every time I think about his genius, it always leads back to this. Deductive reasoning is always going to be easier when the answer is know ahead of time. (Of course, then it ceases to be deductive). That said, I still enjoy the books as well as the RDJr Movies.
  - mdm_ 14y ago
    Solving the problem was never Columbo's biggest challenge. It was "How can I spend several days or weeks sadistically tormenting the perpetrator before he/she makes some massive blunder?". The thrill for Columbo was in toying with the suspect, fostering FUD, provoking their conscience to eat away at them. In some ways, Columbo was a much sicker person than many of the criminals he brought to justice.
bonchibuji 14y ago
I found it funny that the covers in Amazon for UK and US are different. Seems like the author/publisher wants to capitalize on the popularity of Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch one) series in UK.
- adeaver 14y ago
  That happens a lot. Usually it's the US side altering things in places where the US audience would be confused, for instance using UK specific terms or phrasing. Some have even suggested that it is the publishers 'dumbing down' the book for the US.
- manojlds 14y ago
  The Harry Potters covers for US and UK are so vastly different. UK ones were more childlike, while US ones had mature tones.
pavel_lishin 14y ago
> She suggests something as simple as taking a walk in the park during your lunch break instead of eating at your desk. Konnikova has found two reasons for this. First, more hours at the desk can actually make you less productive. This may work for some people, but it has never worked for me. I come back more distracted, and it takes me a long time to get back into the swing of things. I prefer eating a sandwich at my desk while reading a few chapters of a book.
feral 14y ago
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character in a fictional world - as we all know. But there are many articles written as if Holmes is a real person, such that we could extract valuable life lessons by studying how Holmes solved problems - on the implicit basis that it worked out well for Holmes. That a particular way of thinking worked for Holmes doesn't mean anything. At best, you are hoping that Arthur Conan Doyle had a particularly good model of the world, as reflected in his fiction, that is worth studying. Finally, the advice in that particular article seems contradictory, to me. E.g: “I make it a practice not to judge someone before I speak with them and get to know them. But can I tell you who someone is by looking at cuff links? No.” Which is the article saying we are supposed to do? Wait for someone to speak before judging them? Or make educated guesses, based on prior knowledge of the world, and observations such as the cuff links they wear?
- mistercow 14y ago
  Related: http://lesswrong.com/lw/k9/the_logical_fallacy_of_generalization_from/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/k9/the_logical_fallacy_of_generaliza...
  - loup-vaillant 14y ago
    Yet, I don't think this is what's happening here. Well it is happening, but only to get attention. The actual advice seems based on sound science. Like: mindfulness is good (meditation sure is), multitasking is bad (we can't do it anyway), and some mnemonic techniques work better than others (music, writing) —don't know of any study on that one, though there probably are. While we're at it, we don't want to imitate Holmes on everything. The guy was a cocaine user, for one.
- b0rsuk 14y ago
  Incidentally, there's a chapter in the first Sherlock Holmes novel where he does exactly that. When Watson meets Holmes, he boasts about his reasoning skills by showing people walking on the street and saying who they are.
- MaysonL 14y ago
b0rsuk 14y ago
I only read the first Sherlock Holmes novel, but he didn't strike me as an incredibly smart character. This is because the author was keeping lots of critical information from the reader. Reader has no chance to figure it out on his own. Yes, there's a moment when he looks at a muddy path where you can suspect he's seeing some interesting traces - but it's not said what it is.
- gknoy 14y ago
  This is part of the reason why later mystery authors, such as Agatha Christie and her peers, made an effort to give the reader all of the pertinent clues.
- talmand 14y ago
  I think that's just a matter of preference on the author's part of which character you are supposed to identify with. Often you are reading the stories from the point of view of Watson who also has to attempt to keep up with Holmes as much as the reader does. You are supposed to relate to Watson and keeping some aspects of the mystery hidden is reflected in this. That way the author can make sure the reader has the opportunity to "figure it out" when they feel is best for the dynamic of the story. Jack McDevitt speaks of this concept with his Alex Benedict series of books. The first book is from the perspective of the title character but he changes this to the sidekick for the rest of the series. His reasoning for this, from what I recall, is that it wasn't right for the story to be told from the character's perspective but still have to hide certain things from the reader so that certain ideas don't come to mind before they are ready to be presented. The idea is that if the reader figures out the mystery halfway through the story then the rest of the story to be told is ruined.
  - b0rsuk 14y ago
    Then I would blame the story for being too easy to predict. I like stories where there are many loose ends and a variety of outcomes is possible, all making sense.
    - talmand 14y ago
realrocker 14y ago
or How to have a grandiose title and come a cropper?
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
sreyaNotfilc 14y ago
Cool. I was reading an article on Cracked about this very subject. http://www.cracked.com/article_20214_5-so-called-signs-genius-that-any-idiot-can-learn_p2.html http://www.cracked.com/article_20214_5-so-called-signs-geniu... There's a link to a youtube video which features the "Sherlock" television show. It shows the first encounter between Watson and Holmes where he deduces whether or not he was involved in the Afghanistan war. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYlVBhwfvL4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYlVBhwfvL4 Its cool that that encounter happened in the book as well. I love how even though the time period is different, the subjects are still relevant. -- Now about this article, some of these things are of course based of a fictional character. But, I don't think that's the point of the article. Its more about how to open your mind and observe closely what's in front of you. Perhaps, learning and applying the lessons from the fictional Holmes will actually expand ones horizons. Being that this is Hacker News , and the article was posted on Fast Company, I see how this may benefit a developer or an entrepreneur. You may be able to solve problems just by sitting back and not moving too fast. By simply being mindful and patient, maybe the solution will not only come to you but even compel you to act on it. At least that's what I got out of it...

54 points by nikunjk 14y ago

elliptic 14y ago

I prefer to solve problems like Hercule Poirot

sp332 14y ago
I like Columbo's method: just know the answer ahead of time.
- dfxm12 14y ago
  In all seriousness, this is Sherlock Holmes' method too. It's easy to make brilliant deductions when you are a character in a piece of fiction whose story has been completely laid out.
  - jerf 14y ago
    “[Samuel Vimes] had a jaundiced view of Clues. He instinctively distrusted them. They got in the way. “And he distrusted the sort of person who’d take one look at another man and say in a lordly voice to his companion, “Ah, my dear sir, I can tell you nothing except that he is a left-handed stonemason who has spent some years in the merchant navy and has recently fallen on hard times,” and then unroll a lot of supercilious commentary about calluses and stance and the state of a man’s boots, when exactly the same comments could apply to a man who was wearing his old clothes because he’d been doing a spot of home bricklaying for a new barbecue pit, and had been tattooed once when he was drunk and seventeen and in fact got seasick on wet pavement. What arrogance! What an insult to the rich and chaotic variety of the human experience!” - Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay Sherlock Holmes is fun to read, but completely, utterly unrealistic.
    - majormajor 14y ago
      Heh, I had separately posted this up above, but I suppose I can go delete that one and just upvote this one instead. :)
  - astrobe_ 14y ago
    In all seriousness E.A. Poe and his C. Auguste Dupin is the Father of the genre.
    - leejoramo 14y ago
      'You remind me of Edgar Allan Poe's Dupin. I had no idea that such individuals did exist out of stories.' Dr. John Watson Quote -A Study in Scarlet
  - jdechko 14y ago
    As much as I liked reading the Holmes' stories, every time I think about his genius, it always leads back to this. Deductive reasoning is always going to be easier when the answer is know ahead of time. (Of course, then it ceases to be deductive). That said, I still enjoy the books as well as the RDJr Movies.
- mdm_ 14y ago
  Solving the problem was never Columbo's biggest challenge. It was "How can I spend several days or weeks sadistically tormenting the perpetrator before he/she makes some massive blunder?". The thrill for Columbo was in toying with the suspect, fostering FUD, provoking their conscience to eat away at them. In some ways, Columbo was a much sicker person than many of the criminals he brought to justice.

bonchibuji 14y ago

I found it funny that the covers in Amazon for UK and US are different. Seems like the author/publisher wants to capitalize on the popularity of Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch one) series in UK.

adeaver 14y ago
That happens a lot. Usually it's the US side altering things in places where the US audience would be confused, for instance using UK specific terms or phrasing. Some have even suggested that it is the publishers 'dumbing down' the book for the US.
manojlds 14y ago
The Harry Potters covers for US and UK are so vastly different. UK ones were more childlike, while US ones had mature tones.

pavel_lishin 14y ago

> She suggests something as simple as taking a walk in the park during your lunch break instead of eating at your desk. Konnikova has found two reasons for this. First, more hours at the desk can actually make you less productive. This may work for some people, but it has never worked for me. I come back more distracted, and it takes me a long time to get back into the swing of things. I prefer eating a sandwich at my desk while reading a few chapters of a book.

feral 14y ago

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character in a fictional world - as we all know. But there are many articles written as if Holmes is a real person, such that we could extract valuable life lessons by studying how Holmes solved problems - on the implicit basis that it worked out well for Holmes. That a particular way of thinking worked for Holmes doesn't mean anything. At best, you are hoping that Arthur Conan Doyle had a particularly good model of the world, as reflected in his fiction, that is worth studying. Finally, the advice in that particular article seems contradictory, to me. E.g: “I make it a practice not to judge someone before I speak with them and get to know them. But can I tell you who someone is by looking at cuff links? No.” Which is the article saying we are supposed to do? Wait for someone to speak before judging them? Or make educated guesses, based on prior knowledge of the world, and observations such as the cuff links they wear?

mistercow 14y ago
Related: http://lesswrong.com/lw/k9/the_logical_fallacy_of_generalization_from/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/k9/the_logical_fallacy_of_generaliza...
- loup-vaillant 14y ago
  Yet, I don't think this is what's happening here. Well it is happening, but only to get attention. The actual advice seems based on sound science. Like: mindfulness is good (meditation sure is), multitasking is bad (we can't do it anyway), and some mnemonic techniques work better than others (music, writing) —don't know of any study on that one, though there probably are. While we're at it, we don't want to imitate Holmes on everything. The guy was a cocaine user, for one.
b0rsuk 14y ago
Incidentally, there's a chapter in the first Sherlock Holmes novel where he does exactly that. When Watson meets Holmes, he boasts about his reasoning skills by showing people walking on the street and saying who they are.
MaysonL 14y ago

b0rsuk 14y ago

I only read the first Sherlock Holmes novel, but he didn't strike me as an incredibly smart character. This is because the author was keeping lots of critical information from the reader. Reader has no chance to figure it out on his own. Yes, there's a moment when he looks at a muddy path where you can suspect he's seeing some interesting traces - but it's not said what it is.

gknoy 14y ago
This is part of the reason why later mystery authors, such as Agatha Christie and her peers, made an effort to give the reader all of the pertinent clues.
talmand 14y ago
I think that's just a matter of preference on the author's part of which character you are supposed to identify with. Often you are reading the stories from the point of view of Watson who also has to attempt to keep up with Holmes as much as the reader does. You are supposed to relate to Watson and keeping some aspects of the mystery hidden is reflected in this. That way the author can make sure the reader has the opportunity to "figure it out" when they feel is best for the dynamic of the story. Jack McDevitt speaks of this concept with his Alex Benedict series of books. The first book is from the perspective of the title character but he changes this to the sidekick for the rest of the series. His reasoning for this, from what I recall, is that it wasn't right for the story to be told from the character's perspective but still have to hide certain things from the reader so that certain ideas don't come to mind before they are ready to be presented. The idea is that if the reader figures out the mystery halfway through the story then the rest of the story to be told is ruined.
- b0rsuk 14y ago
  Then I would blame the story for being too easy to predict. I like stories where there are many loose ends and a variety of outcomes is possible, all making sense.
  - talmand 14y ago

realrocker 14y ago

or How to have a grandiose title and come a cropper?

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

sreyaNotfilc 14y ago

Cool. I was reading an article on Cracked about this very subject. http://www.cracked.com/article_20214_5-so-called-signs-genius-that-any-idiot-can-learn_p2.html http://www.cracked.com/article_20214_5-so-called-signs-geniu... There's a link to a youtube video which features the "Sherlock" television show. It shows the first encounter between Watson and Holmes where he deduces whether or not he was involved in the Afghanistan war. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYlVBhwfvL4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYlVBhwfvL4 Its cool that that encounter happened in the book as well. I love how even though the time period is different, the subjects are still relevant. -- Now about this article, some of these things are of course based of a fictional character. But, I don't think that's the point of the article. Its more about how to open your mind and observe closely what's in front of you. Perhaps, learning and applying the lessons from the fictional Holmes will actually expand ones horizons. Being that this is Hacker News , and the article was posted on Fast Company, I see how this may benefit a developer or an entrepreneur. You may be able to solve problems just by sitting back and not moving too fast. By simply being mindful and patient, maybe the solution will not only come to you but even compel you to act on it. At least that's what I got out of it...