THE ART OF CREATING GOOD AND BAD PROBLEMS

In the last post, I described the structure of a problem. A problem is primed by something in the outside world, some condition that you want to change. Whatever it is that exists ‘out there,’ you want it to be more than, or different from, what it is. In this way, you create a gap in your mind. If the gap is a positive one for you, you are excited and delighted. If the gap is a negative one, you are upset, stressed, angry, fearful, etc. You are probably grumpy and not in a good state of mind.

This gives an understanding of what a problem is. A problem is your layers of thinking about something ‘out there.’ You represent that thing in your mind, you language it, you create beliefs about it, about yourself in dealing with it, about the resources needed to address it, you create a strategy for the how-to of dealing with it (or the lack of a strategy), you create thoughts about what it means about you, assumptions about the world, and on and on. This is the structure of a problem. This is how you structure a problem in your mind and body.

The good news: Problems do not exist ‘out there’ in the world. You cannot take a picture of a problem; put it on a scale and weigh it; you cannot take it in your hands to feel it. Problems are not empirical, they are mental constructs of your understanding about something that you’re dealing with—a person, an event, a thing, etc. The word ‘problem’ is a nominalization which means it is a false noun. It sounds like a thing, but it is not a thing. It involves a set of actions or processes— processes in your mind as your construe what it is, how it works, its significance, and what you should do. Ultimately, you are the problem creator. And if the creator, you are the one to be the problem solver.

The Art of Creating a Bad Problem Suppose you want to create a really bad problem, how would you do it. First, to have a problem you have to pick some condition in the world to which you respond.

1) Identify a trigger. Start with anything that can serve as a trigger: Anything a person can respond to.

2) Associate a strong negative emotion to the trigger. Let your neurons fire and wire together thereby creating some somatic symptoms in your body.

3) Forecast it into your future. Imagine this S-R going out into your future darkening everything. Exaggerate to awfulize it. Now you have consequences that you can fear, worry about and fret yourself over.

4) Make it pervasive. Assume this will occur everywhere in your life, in all contexts.

5) Negatively appraise it. Appraise all of this with some negative meanings so that you feel upset or distressed.

6) Negatively meta-think it. As you then think about those negative meanings, develop limiting or flawed beliefs, understandings, identities, etc. about them. Personalize it so that you make it about you—that you are flawed and inadequate.

7) Assume the worst. Allow your mind to make unconscious assumptions on the order of —this is inevitable, you can do nothing about it, everybody see how weak and pathetic you are.

Do all of that and bingo! You can thereby generate a deep and thorough-going problem that will stop you in your tracks preventing you from being effective or successful in life. And if you can do this with the simplest things in life, imagine the misery, dysfunction, and unproductiveness you can create by inventing other problems. This is the structure of a bad problem.

Now for Creating Good Problems Enough of that. What’s the structure of a good problem? Let’s now look at how to structure yourself for a good problem. Good problems are those problem that you want. You want to work with it and solve it. It challenges you and in solving it you develop your intelligence and skills and you do something productive.

1) Chose your trigger. Start with anything that can serve as a trigger: something anything a person can respond to (a puzzle, a internet game, an athletic challenge, etc.).

2) Associate a strong positive emotion to the trigger. Let your neurons fire and wire together. This is fun, an adventure, a way to develop and unleash my potentials, etc.

3) Forecast a bright future. Imagine this S-R going out into your future brightening everything, that it will solve additional problems and opens up new areas for exploration.

4) Contextualize appropriately. Assume this will occur in a great many places in life especially in areas that are important to you. What I learn in sports applies to business, and family, and health, etc.

5) Positively appraise it. Give it not only positive meanings, but meanings that empower you as a person. Declare that this problem is a challenge, important to solve, requires a disciplined mind.

6) Positively meta-think it. Then appraise it as having more diverse positive meanings in terms of your beliefs, values, decisions, identity, etc. Meta-state yourself with resources for solving the problems—critical thinking skills, creative thinking skills, executive thinking skills, etc.

7) Assume the best. Make assumptions that bring out your best and put you into a place of creativity and passion: this is a learning that will implies even more solutions; this can be applied across many disciplines.

How about that? Good and bad problems ultimate lie in your hands—or more accurately, in your mind. It lies in how you think, how you construct meaning, the quality of the meanings that you make, and the resources that you unleash. Here’s to being a great meaning-maker, problem- solver in the next year! May you have many good problems! Good problems are challenges to take on to see what you can do with them. These are problems that give you purpose and passion; the are problems that make you come alive, problems that develop your thinking, intelligence, creativity, humanity. May your new year be full of really good problems!