6 ms·

I prefer to solve problems like Hercule Poirot

by elliptic 14y ago

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.

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.