Quotes About Problem-solving

Companies make attractive money when they solve the hardest problems.

People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole. It's

If you do not know how to ask the right question, you discover nothing." After decades of watching great companies fail over and over again, I've come to the conclusion that there is, indeed, a better question to ask: What job did you hire that product to do?

Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual. These

Thus you have to rely on yourself to contain your own ego and recognize your inevitable blind spots. Be particularly cautious about losing your ability to listen. Not only do you need expertise from both within and outside the company to shore up your blind spots and weaknesses, but also a pipeline to people willing and able to bring you diverse views and bad news. Above all, you need to be able to recognize when you're part of the problem.

Here is the worst possible way for you to try to figure out if your idea solves somebody's problem: Ask them. The vast majority of entrepreneurs seem to think that explaining their concept in detail to a few people and then asking whether it's a good idea constitutes validation. It does not.

But desperation is the mother-in-law of invention.

you have a dedicated assistant, or one you share with one or two other people, great. Find one who isn't just able to handle administrative tasks, but excels at the problem-solving part of the job and sees it as his mission to advance you.

When something needs to be fixed, when I need something to change, my first and abiding instinct is to read. I think I can read my way to a solution. Or at least an evasion.

Individuals with the Connection Survival Style already see their lives as problems to be solved, so that if a therapist holds a primarily problem-solving focus, these clients' vulnerable inner world can be missed.

A toothpick, inserted into a standard keyhole and snapped off flush, is a marvelous thing.

I learned that no matter how cool the technology seemed to be, it was valuable only if it solved a real problem that was urgent and provided quantifiable benefits. - Vik Chadha

Only in the movies or comic books do people say they want you to go and hit somebody. All they ever say is that they want you to go straighten a matter out. They say they want you to do whatever you've got to do to straighten a matter out.

Blunt tools are are sometimes found of use, where sharper instruments would fail.

Recognizing the need is the primary condition for design.

People tend to conceptualize problems in such a way as to validate the tools that are familiar and available to them. If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. If all you have are antibiotics, you will always look for the germ. If all you have is a mindset of war, then you will always look first for an enemy.

Inventing is the mixing of brains and materials. The more brains you use, the less materials you need.

Arithmetic is numbers you squeeze from your head to your hand to your pencil to your paper till you get the answer.

You may be an engineer if your idea of good interpersonal communication means getting the decimal point in the right place.

Metaphor is one of a group of problem-solving medicines known as figures of speech which are normally used to treat literal thinking and other diseases.

Don't evaluate a short ride in physiological terms. Easy pedaling is good thinking time. I get all kinds of ideas for bikes, products, and general life solutions during short rides. The super grand solutions often come after twenty minutes, but you'll get some good ones within five; and if you don't, it's still better than five minutes of sitting down and eating five minutes

A thousand men can't undress a naked man.

Haven't you heard of Occam's Razor: once you have a perfectly simple explanation for something, you don't go looking for ever more complicated ways of explaining the very same thing?

many reasons to learn how to program: To understand our world. To study and understand processes. To be able to ask questions about the influences on their lives. To use an important new form of literacy. To have a new way to learn art, music, science, and mathematics. As a job skill. To use computers better. As a medium in which to learn problem-solving.