— Problem-Solving, Skills — 4 min read
Solving problems has pushed us from living in caves with no spoken or written language to living in an age where the world's knowledge is a few seconds away.
Until the late 19th century, for most people, all activities focused on surviving. Now, the majority of Humanity can focus on improvement and living life. Progress happens through problem-solving. When we free up humans to solve problems, we can use our creativity and ingenuity to improve the world.
Problem-solving is the most crucial skill for 2024, but I also want to mention that problem-solving builds on many sub-skills. Communication, analytical, creative, reasoning, and listening skills all have their part to play, but knowing how to bring all those skills to bear on a problem is the primary skill I'm talking about.
So why is problem-solving so important today? Complexity is at an all-time high in the world. Work does not follow a linear line as in the centuries past. Global events on the other side of the world can change your operations. Macroeconomic conditions cause ripple effects across the globe. Political turmoil spreads across the world in unpredictable ways. Excellent problem-solving skills reduce the impact of complexity on your life.
Solving problems makes the world better, as cheesy as that might sound. Many of our issues from two hundred years ago have disappeared; in two hundred years, many of today's problems will be gone.
As humans, we'll always have problems. Our recent technological advancements brought about new issues. Gone are the days of just spending our days searching for food; now, we have problems controlling how much food we stuff in our faces.
As a result of technical advancement, our problems have become increasingly complex and are moving farther away from the fundamental issues of our forefathers. Instead, we are moving closer to solving problems that will raise the quality of life for the 7 billion people on this planet and all future generations. Many humanitarian crises, environmental concerns, and economic disparities exist worldwide that need people collaborating on solving problems.
We are lucky enough to live in the most significant age of Humanity, despite what disciples of declinism would want you to believe. Yes, we still have problems, both fundamental and modern. But you can improve the world by solving even the most minor issues. When large groups of people solve problems important to them, progress happens. Small and localized solutions can have a global impact through the internet.
Problem-solving is the root of all action. Everything we do revolves around solving our problems. You go to work to solve your problem of obtaining money. Money solves issues around food, water, and shelter.
Humans are interested in solving important and relevant problems. We can't all solve the cancer problem, but solving problems for the person who solves cancer is essential work. Every meaningful problem we solve gets us closer to solving even more significant issues. You can find meaning through problem-solving while augmenting your economic value to your clients or company.
Strengthening your problem-solving muscles will grow other sub-skills, as I mentioned earlier. One in particular is decision-making. Structured problem-solving and structured decision-making are nearly identical. The decision you want to make is just a problem where you want to make the best decision according to what makes an outcome valuable.
After a search on LinkedIn, I see that 20% of jobs posted with a salary between $100,000 and $200,000 have "Problem-Solving" in their list of skills they're looking for in a candidate. Whether you change career paths or jobs, it's a general skill you can take with you.
I'm not an AI expert, but problem-solving differs from what AI can accomplish. AI, which includes generative AI like ChatGPT, operates almost entirely in association mode. What I mean by that is that AI is excellent at saying that "when I observe X, there is a 90% chance I will also observe Y". This makes AI great at predictions or recommendations. Still, AI doesn't know why those associations exist or whether X caused Y or Y caused X.
AI is a potent tool you'll need to know when to leverage, but human problem-solving is an AI-proof skill. Well, today, at least.
I'm also on this journey, and this is what I've found. Just get started. Find a problem you want to solve (nothing too grand at first). You're going to suck at it at first, but after reflecting on a couple of disasters, you'll start to notice patterns.
You could also learn about structured problem-solving frameworks like hypothesis-based, 4S, A3, DMAIC, etc. When you start, please start as simple as possible. You can distill almost all the frameworks into a basic set of steps:
As you grow, you can dive into the weakest step. All the frameworks use different methods, insights, and activities you could poach from.
It would help if you focused on spending the amount of time and effort compared to the outcome's value and the problem's immediacy. If 1 billion dollars was on the line, you could spend months or weeks on the situation. Start with issues with much lower stakes and do not need a team of people to help you.
A famous saying is, "Today's problems were yesterday's solutions." That phrase can be a pessimistic view, but tomorrow's problems are better than today's (in general). We can then solve those problems and continue to progress as humans.
Along with complexity comes a rapidly changing world. Adapting to new tools and methodologies is essential for your future in any profession. To combat complexity and change, we need to be able to solve problems effectively.
Problem-solving allows you to contribute to Humanity. The more problems you solve, the more significant your contribution.
Getting good at valuable things takes time and effort. But you can get started today. Open a Word doc and spend 5 minutes doing a brain dump of problems that you could solve in your life, your family's life, your boss' life, or your boss' boss' life. Select the problem most interesting to you and solve it. Let me know how it goes!