#problem formulation

Tools of Thought (Summary and Index) In December, 2018, I began writing a series of essays on “tools of thought.” I realize that many readers probably read these tools at the time they were first published. However, in times of great division such as those we now face, effective thinking is more important than ever yet every day in the news and in social media, I see many examples that overlook…

“I stopped by the bar at 3 A.M.To seek solace in a bottle or possibly a friendAnd I woke up with a headache like my head against a boardTwice as cloudy as I’d been the night beforeAnd I went in seeking clarity” — Lyrics from The Indigo Girls: Closer to Fine If you think programming is cognitively difficult, try parallel programming. It is generally harder to design, to code, and to debug than…

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com You have probably heard variations on this old saw, “To a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” I’ve also heard, “If you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” There is also this popular anecdote:One night, I took my dog out for a walk and I noticed one of my neighbors under a nearby street lamp crawling around on his hands and knees, apparently looking for…

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com Reframing the Problem: Paperwork & Working Paper This is the second in a series about the importance of correctly framing a problem. Generally, at least in formal American education, the teacher gives you a problem. Not only that, if you are in Algebra class, you know the answer will be an answer based in Algebra. If you are in art class, you’re expected to paint…

Photo by Little Visuals on Pexels.com After a long day’s work, I arrived home to a distraught wife. Not, “Hi, sweetheart” but “This doorbell is driving me crazy!”  Me: “What doorbell? What are you talking about?”  People differ in how they perceive the world around them. In my case, for instance, I’m very easily distracted by movement in my visual field. Noise can be annoying, but it rarely…

Photo by Nikolay Ivanov on Pexels.com This post focuses on the importance of discovering who knows what. It’s easy to assume (without thinking!) that everyone knows what you know.  At IBM Research, around the turn of the century, I was asked to look at improving customer satisfaction about the search function on IBM’s website. Rather than using someone else’s search engine, IBM used one…

Tag! You’re it!

As I mentioned before, one of my part-time jobs during my Senior year in college was as a teaching assistant at the Supplementary Educational Center (SEC) in Cleveland. In addition to actual teaching, I did a variety of other chores as well including erecting and painting walls, setting up lighting, putting up NASA exhibits, etc. One of the worst tasks I was assigned was putting a straight pin…