Making the Earth Move

by | Syndicated

In our reading group at work recently we looked at Are Your Lights On? By Weinberg and Gauss. Opinions of it were mixed but I forgive any flaws it may have for this one definition:

  A problem is a difference between things as desired and things as perceived.

It’s hard to beat for pithiness, but Michael Bolton’s relative rule comes close. It runs:

  For any abstract X, X is X to some person, at some time.

And combining these gives us good starting points for attacking a problem of any magnitude:

  • the things
  • the perception of those things
  • the desires for those things
  • the person(s) desiring or perceiving
  • the context(s) in which the desiring or percieving is taking place

Aspiring problem solvers: we have a lever. Let’s go and make the earth move for someone!
Image: Wikimedia Commons