Jesse Meijers

Do you ever have the feeling that you are completely stuck on a problem? That no matter what you try, you just cannot get a grip of the essence of the problem. I have developed many software applications in the last few years. Programming applications usually is pretty straight-forward once you get down to the real programming. However, sometimes there is a problem which you just aren’t able to solve. You have read over the code at least ten times, but you still cannot find the problem. This situation can of course be extrapolated to other problems, in different situations. Any situation where you know there is a problem … you just don’t know where…

The key to solving problems is to change your perspective. Remember that we all see the world through our own paradigms. We look at the problem through our own set of glasses. What may appear as a problem to me, might be crystal clear for you. Or vice versa. So how do you change your perspective?

The trick with programming was that I would explain the code to my colleague. He didn’t even have to listen to me, it was enough that I thought he was listening. Because now I was explaining the code in totally different matter than I was when I was reviewing it myself. By changing my perspective this way, the problem became apparent in no time.

When I was younger I used to draw a lot. I started out by copying simple things like Donald Duck. If I made a mistake, it was easy to see; the image looked nothing like the original in the problem spot. As time progressed however, I started to draw things without copying. But sometimes when you draw, you know something isn’t right. There is this problem with the image, but you just don’t see it. I struggled with this problem for a long time, until my mother learned me the best trick: turn the paper upside down, to change your perspective. When up is down and down is up, you look at the drawing differently … and the problem usually becomes as clear to you as the light of day.

So how does this all relate to other, more general problems? Well, simply put, we want to change the perspective we use to look at the problem. So the key is to think about the problem in a different way. You can easily achieve this by starting with the situation when the problem is already solved, so a moment in the future. If this sounds weird, think about this for a minute. The situation where the problem is solved is probably easy to picture.

Once you have pictured this situation, define the step immediately preceding that situation. What would you do right before the solved situation? Repeat this to back-track the entire process to the solution. If needed you can combine this with a little forward thinking of course, until you get stuck. This method allows you to easily change your perspective on any problem and approach it in a completely different way!

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