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Father Brown

G.K. Chesterton’s character Father Brown was inclined to say “It isn’t that they can’t see the solution; it is that they can’t see the problem”. Gosh, isn’t that so often what humans do? They put so much effort – sometimes with resultant depression – into trying to find a solution, when they are pursuing the wrong problem.

Years ago in the early days of computers we wrote “optimisation programs” whose purpose was to calculate the best solution. This was supposed to be achieved by making sure that each step produced a positive increment, until no further increment was possible. A good plan, but it did not necessarily achieve the supreme result.

The problem is best illustrated by thinking of the program as a mountain; you could climb to the top, but look to one side and you find that yours is not the highest mountain.

Nowadays this is known as yet another example of GIGO (garbage in, garbage out).

Suggestion:
It is often helpful to have a second opinion on defining the problem before working on the solution.

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