First Blog

 What is the main reason to take a vacation? To leave your problems behind. To simply relax from the cursed conflicts back home. To seek internal peace of mind - like for a whole day or two.  If the vacation becomes a problem, it's not a vacation. If you take your problems on vacation, it's not a vacation. If you only see problems on vacation, it's not a vacation.  If family issues become problems on vacation, it's not a vacation.

  Can We Ever Solve Every Problem? G Donald Allen Introduction. The fundamental problem of this section is to consider reasons why we have not yet reached the point in human evolution where we can solve all of our problems. This seems to have a popular origin in the Sherlock Holmes film, “Dressed to Kill [1] ,” where Dr. Watson, expresses the notion, “There is not a problem the mind can set that the mind cannot solve.” In the next section, we show quite the opposite. Some of the greatest of unsolvable problems are related to brain capacity, evolution, conceptuality, prediction, scale, vagueness, complexity, and more. These present roadblocks to problem-solving, and form the background for many almost unsolvable problems. There are multiple reasons, by no means the smallest class of them being the so-called impossible problems to be considered in another chapter. As well, we need to discuss further methodologies for solutions to come in the next chapter. Here are a few examples,

Surviving AI. The people smart enough to ask the right questions will survive the AI invasion. This implies the need to read the AI answers and determine what’s missing. Or is the answer relevant, or is the answer biased, or is the answer wrong? So, don’t throw away those books just yet. Keep sharp. Keep connected. Keep reading. Know what you’re doing. Know what’s important. Know what the problem truly is. Know how to solve problems. In general, up your AI survival ante. Remember: If you don’t know it’s there, you won’t know what to ask about. AI is not substitute intelligence , it is after all only artificial and just supplementary.

  Many problems seem to persist, despite our best efforts to solve them. There are several reasons. Here are a few types. ·         We don’t have the tools (yet) to solve them, intellectual, theoretical, and/or instrumental. Example. Many a problem begins this way. ·         We don’t know what the real problem is. Example. Explaining matter - from antiquity. ·         We make a solution. It catches on. It becomes the solution until it fails. Then we begin again. New failure. Begin anew, and on and on. Example. Explaining planetary motion took several tries. Fads! ·         We assume what the solution should be and persist in using it even though it fails. ·         Special types of problems, called wicked, are so rich in variables and options, there is no unique solution in almost every sense. What are contrived is a collection of answers, inadequate all, but with no consensus. ·         Politicians intervene in the process, corrupting it, and leading to incorrect solutions. Examp

  Continuing with our problem-solving theme, we now take up the question, “What is a Solution?” In it, we try to account for many types of solutions. Not just the math questions, but the whole spectrum of presentations we call solutions. From parents to politics to planning, we consider a variety of solution types. In addition, we take up the question of “How do we approach finding solution?” You will be surprised at how many vastly different paths folks take. Sometimes, people take multiple paths, and this can lead to the notion of “no solution ever.” As mentioned before, the mind works with many differing solving systems - often in mysterious ways. If only the brain was logical, but it ain't. Link to paper. or https://www.linkedin.com/posts/g-donald-allen-420b0315_discovering-just-what-a-solution-can-be-activity-6956251153730867200-mq_i?utm_source=linkedin_share&utm_medium=member_desktop_web

 You've all heard about solving problems, how to, tip, checking, and everything else, but do you know what a problem actually is? In this post we take up 24 different problem types.  Click link below to my LinkedIn page.  What is a Problem?

  The Expert's Paradox, simply stated is: "The more experts we have the more problems we have." How can this be? The resolution is simple. It takes some expertise to really “know what is unknown.” Without expertise, the knowledge explorer can hardly know what questions beyond the most basic to ask. And the answers to those are mostly known. While it may seem that more knowledge should decrease open questions, it is the opposite that’s true.

Spite is a terrible thing.  As a verb, it is to  deliberately   upset  someone or cause them  problems .  Many of us secretly spite one another, but knowing it is wrong, mask it in some principle or other. Examples. A. He rejected promotion to his disliked colleague’s application because he thought his problem-solving skills were inadequate.  The spite is the rejection. The principle is the strength of or value to the company. B. She revealed her neighbor had been arrested for driving under the influence, because she said our neighborhood should maintain the highest standards.   The spite is the revelation.   The principle is those high standards.   C. “Life’s unfair,” is a principle often used to demonstrate a measure of spite toward someone down and out - while you are not. The Scarlet Letter , a novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850, is a lesson in social spite. One example more.  The cat drank from the dog's water dish just to spite it.  No pr

A. “Hate has a taste all its own that fills your throat and chokes you.” --- The Perry Mason Show B. “There are a great many people who are more clever than intelligent.” --- Bruno J. Zwolinski C. For some schools, excellence is always on summer vacation. D. The loyalty paradox:   Uncommon loyalty favors neither good nor evil, neither the scared nor the profane, neither love nor hate.   E. Fundamentally, learning is as nonlinear as are the differences between students. If all were linear, teaching would be easy. F. Cosmologists are the ultimate optimists, believing a complete knowledge of the universe is at hand.   Yet each problem resolved reveals another with double the difficulty.

The Hyperloop Elon Musk (i.e. Mr. Tesla Car) has received “verbal” approval from the government to build the world’s longest tunnel for an ultra-high-speed train line to connect New York to Washington.*  Called a Hyperloop , this tunnel is a mere 204 miles long, as the crow flies. Basically, this means the creation of a tunnel into the earth of a very slight angle and linear, i.e. perfectly straight, to Washington DC. The length of this underground tunnel will be about 203.98 miles.  Not much savings there from the crow’s flight. The interesting point is this tunnel will, at its lowest point be 1.3 miles or about 6866 feet below the earth’s surface.  This is deeper than most oil wells.   So you take a trip on the new train in this new tunnel, and it gets stuck midway.  Will happen sometime. At this depth, the tunnel temperature has increased by 98 degrees F above the mean surface temperature.  It’s hot down there. All this implies system failure at this depth will be fatal.  P