I like the definition given in Gause and Weinberg’s “Are Your Lights On”, a book I’d recommend to anyone thinking about the topics in this post: “A problem is a difference between things as desired and things as perceived.”
Sometimes the resolution involves bringing “things” (i.e. reality) in line with our desires, after we (correctly) perceive it to be different from the desired reality. This will normally involve tasks. (We usually speak of a “project” if we envision many tasks, in particular if they have a hierarchical structure, in particular if we’re aware we don’t know all of the tasks.)
Sometimes too, perhaps more often than we think, the resolution involves bringing our desires in line with reality; or correcting our perceptions, so that the problem is dissolved rather than solved. Not all problem are solved by turning them into tasks, in other words.
An extremely common failure mode of human planners is to jump to solutions, and systematically these are task-solutions. If the first step is to declare that you have a problem, maybe the second step is to frame a problem statement.
I like the definition given in Gause and Weinberg’s “Are Your Lights On”, a book I’d recommend to anyone thinking about the topics in this post: “A problem is a difference between things as desired and things as perceived.”
Sometimes the resolution involves bringing “things” (i.e. reality) in line with our desires, after we (correctly) perceive it to be different from the desired reality. This will normally involve tasks. (We usually speak of a “project” if we envision many tasks, in particular if they have a hierarchical structure, in particular if we’re aware we don’t know all of the tasks.)
Sometimes too, perhaps more often than we think, the resolution involves bringing our desires in line with reality; or correcting our perceptions, so that the problem is dissolved rather than solved. Not all problem are solved by turning them into tasks, in other words.
An extremely common failure mode of human planners is to jump to solutions, and systematically these are task-solutions. If the first step is to declare that you have a problem, maybe the second step is to frame a problem statement.