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The problem with most problem-solving is that the problem itself is
seldom clearly defined and understood. Give me an unclear problem and I’ll
give you an unclear solution. What else could I do? The answer is to start
with the problem as being problem number one.
See also
beginning, goals*, knowledge, learning, preparation*, questions*,
rationality, science, thinking
Quotes
‘I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when you looked
at it in the right way, did not become still more complicated.’
— Poul William Anderson
‘Each problem that I solved became a rule, which served afterwards to solve
other problems.’
— René Descartes
‘A problem well-stated is a problem half-solved.’
— John Dewey
‘One should never impose one’s views on a problem; one should rather study
it, and in time a solution will reveal itself.’
— Albert Einstein
‘The mere formulation of a problem is far more often essential than its
solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skill. To
raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle
requires creative imagination and marks real advances in science.’
— Albert Einstein
‘Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them.’
— Albert Einstein
‘Difficulties are things that show what men are.’
— Epictetus
‘If we want to solve a problem that we have never solved before, we must
leave the door to the unknown ajar.’
— Richard P. Feynman
‘It’s much easier to point out the problem than it is to say just how it
should be solved.’
— John Kenneth Galbraith
‘We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly
disguised as insoluble problems.’
— John W. Gardner
‘If the individual is narrowly concentrated on the goal, to the exclusion of
other relevant aspects of the problem situation, he is often unable to achieve a
solution. The creative thinker must stand sufficiently detached from his work.’
— Mary Henle
‘Problems are only opportunities in work clothes.’
— Henry J. Kaiser
‘Since our problems have been our own creation, they also can be overcome.’
— George Harrison
‘Never state a problem to yourself in the same terms as it was brought to
you.’
— Tom Hirshfield
‘The second assault on the same problem should come from a totally different
direction.’
— Tom Hirshfield
‘If you don’t understand a problem, then explain it to an audience and listen
to yourself.’
— Tom Hirshfield
‘Studying the inverse problem always helps.’
— Tom Hirshfield
‘We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as
insoluble problems.’
— Lee Iacocca
‘For every problem, there is one solution which is simple, neat and wrong.’
— H. L. Mencken
‘Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution. If you don’t have any
problems, you don’t get any seeds.’
— Norman Vincent Peale
‘In all the creative work that I have done, what has come first is a problem,
a puzzle involving discomfort.’
— Bertrand Russell
‘Knowing what you want is the first step toward getting it.’
— Mae West
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