Solving Problems

My entire life I have had a problem solving method that still, to this day, serves me well in everything I do. Work, writing or non, life, it’s just a good problem solving technique. For me. I can’t speak on if it is any good for you, or anyone else, I just know it works for me.

The entire thing is simple, really.

When given a problem, I find the roughest, dirtiest, messiest hard and fast solution possible.

The sort of solution that may have some light consequences, it is going to be, 100% a rough ride. It’ll be ugly. It’ll be brutish and probably overall ill-advised.

But it’ll work, and solve the problem.

The solution does, also, have to be feasible. Something that can be done. “Blow up the Earth” blahblahblah sure whatever, but that isn’t at all what I’m talking about. I firmly mean solutions you can do, that would solve the problem, even if they’re messy and you wouldn’t ever want to do them.

That’s kinda the point, even. I don’t want to use that solution. It goes in my back pocket. It’s Break Glass in Case of Emergency stuff. I hope to never touch that solution. But it is there, just in case.

Once I have that my brain feels freed up to find a good, clean, best case solution, without having to worry “What if I can’t find anything at all in the time needed?” I have my worst case backup. I am free to find best case without worry.

I admit there are times I will tell other people the worst case solution, because they ask, and they will occasionally not quite understand it isn’t to be used. They’ll start telling me why it’s bad and why we need better and…no I get it, I wasn’t going to use it, good lord I truly, deeply, hope I don’t have to use it.

My brain needs to know it’s there, though, so it can cleanly get on to doing the bigger, better, work.

Doesn’t matter what the problem is, really. For some simple examples: If I find that in a passage I need to add some details and information I’ll often go “Ok I can write a clunky bit of exposition and get the data on the page” as a worst case, and then solve it from there.

If I have to go somewhere I will sometimes figure out how I want to get there by starting from “Can I walk there? It’s only four miles, so sure,” and then work out how I will actually get there.

Hell, even blog posts, I will often think of a topic I want to write about and map out the worst possible version quick and dirty, before digging in and making it actually say what I want, just to know I can get there, regardless.

Your brain might, and probably does, work differently. But for me, this is the fastest way to solve anything. Start with the rough cut, then do the actual work.