First Blog

  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

Problem solving... Decades ago, my garbage disposal stopped working.  Turned the switch - got just a hummm.  Bummer.  I was distressed, because at the time I hadn't the cash to buy a replacement.  This is notwithstanding the simple fact I didn't know how to install one.    Nonetheless, I called my local appliance dealer to come and fix it.  He took one look.  He pulled from his kit a giant screw driver and plunged it down, deep into the disposal and nudged the blades just a bit.  It then worked fine for the time I lived in the home - on Berkeley Street.  But I remembered this trick.  In all the intervening years I had no problems with garbage disposals until today.  Dad-gum thing stopped working!  My solution:  I went to my garage, loaded with unused tools of all sorts, fetched up a giant screw driver, plunged it deep-down, and nudged the blades just a bit.  It now works again, just as it did before.  Thus, t'was a simple application of Archimedes' law of