Problem-solving is an art which demands not only hard work, but also smart work.
“If I had an hour to save the world, I would spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem & 5 minutes thinking about solutions.”
This famous quote by Albert Einstein sums it all.
To effectively solve problems related to Engineering or Physics, one needs to maintain a creative approach in today’s world.
If you are an Engineer, Scientist, Student or an Artist, you need to solve problems by using both imagination and knowledge. You can’t solve a problem without imagination, because that's the only thing which will help you to think out of the box.
What has helped me in the past to identify the real root cause for any kind of technical problem are the 3 core elements – Fundamentals, Information and Imagination.
While imagination and information can help us reach areas that were once inaccessible, mastery of the fundamentals is of utmost importance.
That is one of the most important qualities of a problem solver. On the other hand, imagination is useless without knowledge.
Let’s solve a problem to test this hypothesis so that we can decide later.
How can one determine the exact thickness of a paper?
One way is to measure the paper’s thickness with the help of measuring instruments like scale, micrometer, gauge or some other device (It’s practically impossible to do so but let’s assume we can measure up to some limit).
Even the Google search results will show you ways of measuring it with the help of devices (see below image). But this approach may not give accurate results and the overall process is time consuming.
On the other hand, if we decide to use a little imagination, we can calculate the exact thickness of the paper. How?
Step-1: Put together a stack (bunch) of papers.
Step-2: Measure the overall height of the stack. (See below image)
Step-3: Divide that height with the total number of papers in the stack and boom! We get the exact thickness of each paper.
Simple and effective!
In our first attempt we approached the problem with knowledge. We thought of measuring the thickness with a device. While in the second attempt we approached the problem with knowledge (information and fundamentals) as well as imagination to calculate the exact thickness of paper.
In conclusion, the solidity of a well defined problem & fluidity of looking the problem through the lens of the 3 elements - Fundamentals, Information and Imagination is the core to any problem solving methodology.
Have you come across any other problems where the converse is true?
Let me know in comments..
Keep Rocking!
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