Problems, Problems Everywhere

One of the things that has been hardest in my writing on problem solving has been using the word “problem” clearly. I had a colleague who pointed out about a year ago that I should be careful not to say things like “the problem with this problem.” She went further to suggest that even “issue” was maybe too close for clarity. I took her feedback to heart, but I still had trouble because while renaming all my non-problems to something else helped, the word was still overloaded. Was I talking about a problem or a Problem? Or even a PROBLEM?

The worst part was when I was writing about two different kinds of problems in the same piece. Or when I interpret something as one kind of problem, but most people see it differently. I would say something like “to me, the problem is always up for discussion.” But if you don’t see the world that way, it seems rather presumptuous or just wrong. And even if you do share my viewpoint, there was still confusion since I was using the same word to mean fundamentally different things.

That was why in my last post I was so excited to have found the new term “Meta-problem.” I finally have words to describe the distinct meanings of the word problem in a way that makes sense.

• Problem – something you need to solve. I.e., 2x = x + 3, what is x?

• Meta-problem – something you need to understand. I.e., how can we improve y?

• Complaining – something you don’t need to solve or understand. I.e., I don’t like cucumbers.

The most surprising thing to me about using the word meta-problem for things we want to understand is it was suddenly clear to me that the solution to a meta-problem has different characteristics than the solution to a problem. That idea has been one of the trickiest to figure out up to this point, and I am pretty sure I never understood it explicitly before last week. I would argue in my writing that giving people an understanding of the trade-offs was useful, but I couldn’t succinctly say why.

So, with this new set of definitions, what changes? Well, for one it helps when someone states a “problem” and the listener interprets it as a different type than intended. Some of my consulting work is around Lean Process Improvement where we sometimes label a process as “non-value-added, necessary, but there’s gotta be a better way to do it.” If you look at a process and it’s time consuming or error prone, when we label it this way it is not yet a problem to be solved. Because solving it might be impossible. But it is a problem to be understood. Can we make the process less time consuming and less error prone?

Alternatively, when I told people I didn’t like cucumbers as a kid, I often got the response “but they’re so inoffensive, how can you not like them?” I was complaining since I had a problem but did not need to solve or understand anything. However, I was misunderstood and so they were offering me solutions.

Meta problems are especially important because to find a problem to solve, you need to understand why it would be useful to solve. So, behind every problem, there should be a meta-problem providing the backup as to why we even care. This is why I fundamentally believe “the problem” is always up for discussion. If you are handed a meta-problem to begin with, that’s the point. If you are handed a problem to solve, it’s always possible there are things you will learn that should lead you to revisit the meta-problem.

So, if we split problems into “problems” to solve and “meta-problems” to understand, how do we recognize which is which? You could take my approach: It’s a “problem” if it is a math / programming / definition kind of problem and completely separated from practical reality. If someone is trying to make a decision based on the answer to their inquiry, I assume it is a meta-problem. Or, at least, I assume solving the meta-problem will be much more useful for them than the alternative.

Going one step further, it is safest to assume that directly answering the question is never the right answer. Whether presented with a problem, meta-problem, or complaint. Most of the time when someone asks you something, it is not actually an academic exercise unless they are working on homework. And if it is homework, you’re just keeping them from learning what they are supposed to.

Lastly if they are just complaining, hopefully asking them a question about their hatred of cucumbers will at least be more novel than offering a remedy.