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How to solve a problem
When faced with a difficult problem, don’t try to solve it. Instead, make sure you understand it. If you understand it properly, the solution will be obvious
How to solve a problem
So what should you do? Well, here’s the useful thing about Alexander’s definition of good design as design that fits the context: it tells us where we should look if we want to find a proper solution to the problem.
We should look at the context.
We should look at the context.
Henrik Karlsson • How to solve a problem
In most situations, there are a near infinite number of potential answers, yet only a few that are good. Luckily, each constraint that you map reduces the search space, making it easier to see what the right answer is.
If you map the context well enough, the solution will reveal itself.
If you map the context well enough, the solution will reveal itself.
Henrik Karlsson • How to solve a problem
When faced with a difficult problem, don’t try to solve it. Instead, make sure you understand it. If you understand it properly, the solution will be obvious.
Henrik Karlsson • How to solve a problem
But when I think in terms of understanding the problem, or mapping the context , rather than solving it, I’m put in a state of mind that makes it easier for me to get it right. Being curious about the problem counteracts my confirmation bias and helps me see through to the deeper layers of the context where the better solutions hide.
Henrik Karlsson • How to solve a problem
understanding the context of a problem is crucial to coming up with solutions
a design is good if and only if the form (of the solution) fits the context (of the problem).
Henrik Karlsson • How to Solve a Problem
Finding form-context-fit is like solving a Sudoku. To figure out which number should go into a square, you look at the other numbers in the same row—it can’t be one of those numbers; that’s one constraint. Then you look at the numbers in the same box; it can’t be one of those either. Once you’ve figured out all the numbers that are not allowed, you
... See moreHenrik Karlsson • How to Solve a Problem
But when I think in terms of understanding the problem, or mapping the context , rather than solving it, I’m put in a state of mind that makes it easier for me to get it right. Being curious about the problem counteracts my confirmation bias and helps me see through to the deeper layers of the context where the better solutions hide
Henrik Karlsson • How to solve a problem
And it wasn’t enough to respect the context. What we put in needed to make the already-existing stronger . This also applied to the other aspects of the context, the architecture, the ecology... And it applied to the part of the context that was us —the garden should make us feel more alive and encourage us to engage in the activities we want to... See more