Aren’t both of these the obvious things? In that the obvious thing is what comes to mind that has a chance of working?
I would say “any direct solution to the problem”. Anything that fits the first line of the Mental Gymnastics meme. (...) I am explicitly asking not for much here, just a token amount of effort.
The main thing is to show proof of work. Any work that isn’t just busy work. You’re showing you’re serious about the problem, rather than just wanting to complain about it.
So if you e.g. complain that you’re fat and can’t seem to get your weight down, then the obvious things would be e.g. going to the gym a couple of times a week for a month or two, or actually properly dieting. If after this you still can’t get your weight down, then you’ve demonstrated that you’ve actually tried to solve your problem.
Another version of this point is this chart for tech support.
There are cases where someone might not be able to come up with any obvious approaches. These are rare. Most people just don’t actually think about problems they want to solve.
Aren’t both of these the obvious things? In that the obvious thing is what comes to mind that has a chance of working?
The main thing is to show proof of work. Any work that isn’t just busy work. You’re showing you’re serious about the problem, rather than just wanting to complain about it.
So if you e.g. complain that you’re fat and can’t seem to get your weight down, then the obvious things would be e.g. going to the gym a couple of times a week for a month or two, or actually properly dieting. If after this you still can’t get your weight down, then you’ve demonstrated that you’ve actually tried to solve your problem.
Another version of this point is this chart for tech support.
There are cases where someone might not be able to come up with any obvious approaches. These are rare. Most people just don’t actually think about problems they want to solve.