Meta-Problem Defined

I have now been writing for over a decade on problem solving. Over that time, I definitely had interesting things to say, but occasionally I had trouble writing. My sentences would look like “so you have a problem. And then you have a problem with the problem.” And overall everyone agreed it was hard to follow. But I didn’t have a better solution, so I kept writing.

This summer I posted when I came up with the term “meta-problem.” I also started writing an academic paper where I settled on distinguishing between “completely defined problems” and “incompletely defined problems.” I added a whole vocabulary (not all of which is published here) to describe the generalized process of problem solving. In short, I took meta-problem and ran with it to develop a whole framework for talking about problem solving.

Last week I launched meta-problem.com. The approach there is different than here. On this blog I am mulling over how these ideas apply in specific nuanced situations. I am testing different ways you can frame up a problem. I am describing the way it feels to be in the weeds solving a problem and trying to understand the bigger picture. On that page, I am instead trying to write more directly. I hope to present a clear definition, resources, and a call to action to use this in your daily life.

I will have other updates in the future, but feel free to take a look and let me know what you think!