Solving problems III

Next up in the suite of problem-solving options, is the one that we are probably most familiar with. Based on ‘reasoning by analogy’; which some thinks is the lesser way and consider it ‘copy-paste’. I disagree because while it is slightly lazier, it can be efficient and especially for cases where things are urgent and you’re not solving a very innovation-intensive new problem, that is the best way.

Again, you do really need to understand the problem a bit more, and then you need to gather brains in the room to recall various experiences. More often than not, someone in a big-enough team would have seen similar problems before. Or even dealt with them. For these people who had the benefit of hindsight, they might be able to offer ideas on some solutions or the team can brainstorm for new options based on their understanding of how it was handled previously.

There will be idiosyncrasies to account for. That’s why it is not a lazy method. The difficulty is when you start having to develop convoluted ways of adapting the solution to your particular problem. Those are the sure signs that you might have used the wrong analogous problem as a starting point. Restart your search for a similar problem.