Solving problems outside your comfort zone

Merlin — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:04:28 -0400

I sometimes think that one factor in success as a business or as a human being has a lot to do with what kind of problems you’re comfortable solving – and how you get better at addressing the stuff that falls outside that comfort zone.

History is littered with revolutionaries who couldn’t run the country they’d overthrown, Generals who’ve insisted on re-ﬁghting the last war, talented programmers who were promoted to becoming ineffective (and very unhappy) managers, and, of course, there’s the countless companies that just couldn’t make the leap when technology or cultural change rendered their comfy old business model moot.

Seems like there’s a thread here that’s worth thinking about.

How do you get better at knowing when you’re trying to solve the wrong problem?

It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately as I take what had been mostly a hobby and try to “Go Pro” with it. For me, that’s meant a lot of stumbles around moving from being a one-man show into what may eventually become a small company (who knows?). I’m ﬁnding it really challenging to stop solving the problems I’m comfortable solving, and to ask for and accept help with the stuff I suck at or that doesn’t represent the best use of my time.

I think this applies to almost everybody, from the time they’re born, right? You ﬁgure out a few things, you do some informal experiments with reality, and then you try to suss out the patterns that won’t get you hit by a car or carted off to jail. But the old patterns almost always stop doing the trick at some point or in some unexpected context. For example, that bawling and tantrum-throwing that got you a hug in kindergarten may not endear you to your company’s board.

The best advice I’ve gleaned so far is to try and stay cognizant of diminishing returns. Just because I know how to do basic sysadmin work doesn’t mean I’m the best person to work on it. And conversely, just because I loathe the idea of becoming a “manager” doesn’t mean I can afford to put off learning the skills forever.

The Question to You

What’s your trick? How’d you learn to start ﬁxing more interesting and unfamiliar problems? Can you think of any particular businesses or people who have (so far) aced the test?

”Solving problems outside your comfort zone” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on October 10, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2009 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Solve problems by writing a note to yourself

Merlin — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 08:31:05 -0500

Dear, Merlin,

For someone so fond of lecturing other people about their problems, I have a lot of annoying tics (I mean, duh). One of my worst, at least back in the day, was seldom bothering to RTFM before demanding lots of time-consuming help from others.

For years, my court of ﬁrst resort was almost always to email the smartest, often busiest person I knew about a given topic, alerting them as to their new role as the speed bump between me and solving my problem (cf: the classic Balloon joke). I’ve gotten better at it over the years, for sure, and, in the age of Google, it’s a habit that’s easy enough to shed.

The funny thing I eventually realized was that I could and often did ﬁnd the solution to my problem – part way through writing the email in which I was asking for help. I realize this sounds kind of silly, but the next time you’re having trouble ﬁguring something out, try writing a note to yourself.

Seriously, open up your email program, type in your own email address, then choose a brilliant subject line that perfectly encapsulates your particular problem.

In the body of the message, start by typing a 2-3 sentence paragraph summarizing the trouble you’re having, with a focus not on your frustration or your dramatic need for immediate help – instead concentrate on coolly describing exactly what you want to accomplish as well as what happens when you try the approach that hasn’t been working for you. Remember: you’re theoretically writing this to the smartest, busiest person you know, so don’t waste their time with theatrics, melodrama, and passive-aggression; just give them accurate information that describes where you’re getting hung up.

Next, explain the ways you’ve already tried to solve this problem, including any alternate solutions, workarounds, hacks, reboots, etc. Anything that will help this very smart friend rule out possible causes is useful. And don’t be reluctant to use Google as you go; fact-checking yourself, choosing precise language, and ensuring that you’ve framed the right problem.

If you’re still typing at this point (meaning you haven’t stumbled upon 1 or 2 new solutions to try), outline 3-5 possible causes for the problem. Bullet out any recent changes, new software, theoretically related problems – anything that you think might be contributing to the primary hang-up.

Now go back and read your email like you’re the smartest, busiest person you know – like it’s not actually your problem. What’s missing? What would you suggest they try ﬁrst? Is it plugged in?

In an astonishing number of cases – and at practically any point in this process – one or several things are likely to occur to you:

You’re overlooking something fundamental.
There’s an insanely obvious solution you hadn’t thought of.
You forgot about a conﬁguration change.
You missed a dependency.
You’re using an excellent solution…for the wrong problem.
You were getting so worked-up and clicking so many things that you were actually making a trivial problem much worse.
You, um, hadn’t Googled for the Subject line of your message (or your error message, etc.).
You got so emotionally invested in solving the wrong problem that you didn’t realize there’s a simpler way to do what you ultimately need.
You don’t really need to be doing this at all.
It’s actually not plugged in.

This most deﬁnitely will not work for 100% of your problems, but you may be surprised at how well it works for most of them.

Alan Watts once wrote that once we understand a problem we’ve actually solved it – that you make a dark room brighter by adding light, not by waving your arms around. Next time you’re waving your arms around in the dark, make sure you understand the real nature of your problem – and not just allow yourself to pout and stay ﬁxated on the desire for your frustration to go away. You probably already know the answer to your problem or you at least know where to ﬁnd it. Maybe you just don’t know you know it yet.

Love,
Merlin

p.s.

Has anyone ever ﬁgured out that 90% of the posts on this site are actually (notes|pep talks|reminders) to myself? I sometimes think not. The site deﬁnitely makes more sense once you get this.

”Solve problems by writing a note to yourself” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on February 02, 2006. Except as noted, it's ©2009 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Problem-Solving

Solving problems outside your comfort zone

The Question to You

Solve problems by writing a note to yourself

p.s.