Quality of solution

I used to be very critical and I am quickly in uncovering sub-optimal solutions. While this is an engine that gives you the opportunity of doing something good for the world by improving the situation it might create a negative aura around you.

The problem: You see a lot of problems to be solved and you want to help by pointing out but nobody wants to listen.
There is so much to improve in this world - too much. You see plenty of bad things done and a bunch of potential dangers in the way things are managed currently. You want to improve but you have so few time. You want to help and so you think notifying somebody about the dangers and traps is the minimum you can do. As you have so few time you hurry to the next problem...

The reason: People already have enough problems themselves and if you don't bring solutions you don't help them.
If you can't present a better solution then pointing to a bad situation can cause negative effects for you, because

• you get considered egocentric or bigheaded/cocky
• you are negative
• the group you are talking to contains the architect of the current solution

The solution: There is a reason for everything that currently exists and it has a sense. If you can't improve the situation then it is better to do nothing.
Doing nothing or to wait (until you better studied the situation and environment) can be the better choice rather than making it worse. Accept that there are open issues and focus on those issues that seem most important to you and match with your fields of interest. Then search for solutions to particular problems in your area of expertise. Keep in mind that solutions might include several drawbacks but it is better to have a bad solution than having none. Accept to live with patches and workarounds - it's better than nothing. And guess: Maybe the solution you think best turns out to be even worse...

About this Blog

Focus of this blog is problem solving so this blog is meant to be a part of the productivity and life improvement blogs.

Why talking about "problems"?
The word problem seems to have a negative touch.

I did sometimes feel a sense of guilt when talking about problems. People need to get motivated and when talking about problems you get a lot of resistance - nobody wants to hear bad truth.

But history of humanity is history of problems and suffering.
Buddhism philosophy states "There is suffering".
So we can also say: "There are problems".

When people don't have problems they are likely to create some of their own because of their tendency to be lazy.

But the word problem is not necessarily negative. Naming something as a problem is getting aware of a barrier. This is the first required step before you can put it out of your way.

Getting aware of a problem is the opportunity to improve the situation.

And improving your situation and environment is improving your life - improving the quality of your being.

Improving your life is success. Success is happiness and motivation.

Solving problems is success, happiness and motivation!

About Me

For an abstract of my work and interests see my profile.

You can contact me writing e-mail to mwildam[at]gmx.at.

It happened in my childhood that I already felt in having a lot of problems leading from difficult homework to mistreatment by companions. I prayed to god for help solving my difficulties but I mostly did not have the impression that I was helped.

Like the flash of a lightning one day I came to the conclusion that I have to solve the problems myself (if one believe in god or not - you must get active).

When my father brought home a computer for work and did a lot of problem solving using the computer I got interested in it ... ... and solving a lot of "problems" with the computer (not mentioning the problems it created ;-) ) it brought me to my profession...

However, in my life beside the computer I still felt a lot of problems and as I was used to finish homework before going to play I also felt that I must solve my problems before I can start to be happy and satisfied. I found that for a lot of personal problems (communication difficulties, broken toys and hearts or many other) common root problems could be identified and so I started to dig for the root problems and tried to solve those. And that helped more because I could solve a number of problems at once solving the primary one. But again there were always problems remaining.

At university after attending a course (that did not belong to my subjects in reality) about ZEN meditation I read a little about buddhism and it said: "There is suffering."

With the experience of the meditation and some information I started to accept the permanent existence of problems - it is something "normal". Knowing that problems are something normal, the word "problem" looses it's negative attribute a little.

I remember a question from the audience of a buddhism event I attended by accident many years later: "Is the computer a bad thing that we should avoid?" - Smiling a little I expected the speaker to say: "Yes, it is a bad thing". But he answered: "A computer is a wonderful thing that can help us having satori (enlightment)". Later I understood that while growing into the computer business the computer taught me analysing or solving problems - and much more (even if it also created a lot of problems - or did I create those myself ;-) ).

Looking back, the trigger of big steps forward in my personal development was again and again the feeling of having a problem. And then I searched for a solution. So being aware that some current habit or strategy is not working (any more) well is a first important thing.

Especially (but not only) in the last months I had a lot of help from nice people improving my life's quality in general. And reading a lot of productivity and life improvement blogs in the last months gave me a lot of very important incentives.

I do want to contribute to this wonderful community.