This post by angelbob got me thinking about facts vs logic problem solving.
I LOVE problem solving. But I don’t like being forced to solve problems because it hurts so much to fail at it. I would rather not make the attempt. (This is a me issue.)
But there are different aspects to problem solving which I think are actually more fundamental and are really different types of problem solving.
There are questions on IQ tests (Mensa’s for example) that give you a series of numbers (or letters) and you are suppose to answer what is the next number. This strikes me as a process of digging around in your head for different relationships the given numbers have and trying out different models. There isn’t a way to “solve” this sort of problem if you have never seen the relationship or if you are not one that can leap to the right answer to try. Usually the samples don’t have anything in common so there is no method to get to a solution. I really don’t like these sorts of questions. I also find it sad that IQ is measured by these things.
My head doesn’t store facts much. Some of you might be laughing since you have experienced me having some random fact but really, considering all the things I have known, very few are still in my head. I don’t hold onto facts because it is hard and it makes it harder to learn something new. My motto is if I knew it once, it should be easy to learn it again. So facts and bits of knowledge sort of float around in my head until something hooks on one of them.
I like the logic questions. Suzie has 2 apples and lives next door to Tom. Gary has four oranges and works with Mary, etc. Once everything is laid out and the connections are known, then the problem solves itself. This is my sort of problem solving. It is also probably why I like Math so much.
When someone asks me a computer question (along the lines of how do I do… or why isn’t this working…) it feels really neat to be able to rattle off the answer because it is floating in my head. This doesn’t happen often or it does but only for really easy questions. Generally I ask them to send me a sample file and I poke at it. I have no idea what I am doing, I just know how to poke and interpret the results. When I think I have figured it out, I close the file and start from scratch. Then I show them how to do it without all the poking. I am delighted by having the correct answer off the top of my head because it is a novel feeling. I am not especially wow’ed that I figured out the correct answer because that is just normal to me. I do feel good when I am able to do it more than those around me because it means I have something to add to the party and I feel accomplished.
The type of problem solving I like is finding the pattern and figuring out the process. I like poking at things and making things unravel so that I can figure out how they work when they are put back together. I like working on things that need logic and have answers. I don’t care for the ones that you have to jump to some piece of knowledge to make things work. My head doesn’t do the jumping thing overly well.
I have found that high art design is not a place for me to be. I have found a niche with document creation/processing as a Presentation Specialist. Tell me what you want out of Office or Adobe’s Creative Suite and I can make things.
What other jobs would be good for my type of problem solving?
I have said for years that my memory is the equivalent of those Velcro Dartboards from the 70′s…
You know, the ones that had little ping-pong ball sized hard plastic balls with 2 strips of velcro around them quartering the ball? You’d hurl them at the feltish velcro “dart” board and hope like heck it had a good effect. Accuracy had nothing to do with it. You could hit the target dead bullseye and if it didn’t catch the right edge, it would bounce off or roll down. You could miss the target portion entirely and still have it roll down into the bullseye. Random chance of sticking was your only hope.
Yep – that’s my memory. No idea what this guy’s name is that I’ve “known” for 5 years, have been talking to for an hour and have heard people say at least 3 times in the past 30 minutes… but I can tell you that he once told me a story in passing about a party he attended in high school that had an unfortunate incident with Manic Panic Purple dye and someone’s pet bunny.
Velcro.