Somewhere on the vast landlines of X (former Twitter), I stumbled upon the recommendation of this book. It had a funny cover and a word of advice from some quite reputable, so I had no other way but to read it.
The book’s central theme is practical problem-solving in human-built systems with some possible biases and sometimes irrational behaviors. By a set of reality-based examples, full of humor, we’re driven through a journey addressing the core of problem-solving: what it is the real problem to solve and whether it should be solved in general.
That reading is funny, giving you perspective on problems you may not have considered before. As an engineer, you may too often jump into the problem space, finding out nitty-gritty ways of building a solution for the problem that may not require solving or even to the wrong problem. We have too many things to think about: design, architecture, finding out how to introduce changes to legacy codebases, or adapting a framework to the specific problem. This may lead to frustration and disappointment when requirements change suddenly or projects get canceled out of the blue. This book will add some tooling to your toolbox to ask proper questions before spending months in the development of something that does not make sense in general (or to keep you sane, understanding that the problem solved does not require solving, and the project will fail anyway).
Highlights samples
Each solution is the source of the next problem.
Problems that come from "Nature" are the worst kind, for two reasons.
First, we feel helpless to do anything about a problem that seems to come from so remote a source.
Indeed, we often ascribe a problem to Nature so as to evade responsibility for doing anything about it.
"It's only human nature to overeat, to crave what you can't have, and to pad your expense account."
Not too many many people, in the final analysis, really want their problems solved.
Unfortunately, the President didn't take this communal action in the proper spirit.
He let it be known through official channels that any student parking in his space would be summarily dismissed from school.
This autocratic action solved his problem by making it not their problem but, rather, one person's problem at a time.
"Divide and conquer" is quite the opposite of the "OUR problem" approach—and thus provides a most useful technique for those who would prevent problem resolution.
It is the favorite trick of University Presidents and other tyrants.