Making the Earth Move

In our reading group at work recently we looked at Are Your Lights On? By Weinberg and Gause. 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 perceiving is taking place

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

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