When In Doubt Write It Out!

An often overlooked tool in almost everyone's tool kit is the ability to write things out. I know I am not alone in having found myself jumping head first into a project or problem and getting lost or stuck when my half processed plans stall. Maybe it's a small error, a typo or syntax error, or maybe it's something larger, an improperly structured program, but any size of an issue running harder at it is 99 times out of 100 not going to fix the issue. I may not be breaking new ground here, but I've found that all of the issues I run into are always easier to solve when I write out the problem at hand.
Writing out a problem has many benefits but in particular it does two things of note; it *reframes the problem allowing new perspectives on what could be going wrong and it *deconstructs the environment in which the problem exists isolating apparently independent aspects of the environment that the problem could be originating from.

Reframing

Reframing an issue is important because it forces an individual to take new perspectives of the issue at hand potentially revealing otherwise obscure, hidden, or unnoticed aspects of the problem the individual is looking to solve. Think of a perfect corkscrew. From above or below a corkscrew looks no different than a circle while from any other perspective the differences are more than apparent.

Deconstructing

Deconstructing an issue is important because it forces an individual to identify important aspects of the environment in which an issue exists creating a framework of the issue's environment while also isolating relatively independent aspects of the issue's environment consolidating points of focus for a plan of attack.

In conclusion when a problem arises writing out said problem will undoubtedly help in solving that problem. By writing out a problem one forces themself to reframe the issue by explaining the environment in which it exists and to destructure the issue for the same reasons. Both of these aspects of writing out anything force individuals to appreciate the issue in new ways and develop a framework of the where the issue exits to build a solution into or off of.

Thanks as always for reading!

Maybe some back-to-basics blogging next week.
Cheers!