Programming is essentially problem-solving both on a small and a large scale. And the best way to resolve an issue is to identify the core reason f...
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Why am I reading this article?
Because I usually start my workday off with some misc reading.
Why do I start my day with some misc reading?
Because I do not like jumping directly into my workload.
Why do I not like jumping directly into my workload?
Because I am not always confident in my abilities to solve the problem at hand.
Why am I not confident in my abilities to solve the problem at hand?
Because I am suffering from Impostor Syndrome.
Why do I suffer from Impostor Syndrome?
Because I do not focus 100% on work and therefor am not as knowledgeable about our infrastructure as I feel I should be.
Well damn...you really can use this method with anything.
I'm pretty sure that whatever the first question is, every last question always circulates over the same reason...
Why do I suffer from Impostor Syndrome?
Why do I suffer from Impostor Syndrome?
Why do I suffer from Impostor Syndrome?
Why do I suffer from Impostor Syndrome?
That is a perfect application. Way to go showing us how it is done!
The Five Whys (or any similar system) is extremely useful. It's always worth digging deeper. I find myself repeatedly asking "What's the real problem here?"
That said, it's worth treading carefully -- depending on where you focus your questions, you can end up at very different conclusions. In your phone example, you could dig deeper on (a) the scooter, or (b) the unsecured phone, or (c) the busy Paris roads, or (d) the psycho driver who ran over your phone, and so on. If you get the wrong focus at the start, you can end up wasting a lot of time. (After all, there's not much you can do about those psycho drivers!)
I agree with you, depending on the questions you will reach different conclusions. However, isn't that the beauty of the method? You can explore multiple different options and gain an understanding of the bigger picture.
While some will lead to a dead-end such as not being able to control other people's actions or reactions (as with the driver), others will be helpful.
I find it particularly useful when I am trying to "kick" a bad habit. For example, my sweet tooth turned into a coping mechanism with stress. Over time it became an automatic action I did not think about when under stress.
By applying the five whys when I get the urge, I can "override" the initial impulse with a decision to opt for something healthy instead!
Feel free to try it in different situations, and always take the outcome with a grain of salt, so you can determine if it is accurate or not. And be sure to explore different interpretations.
Hope this helps!
Yeah, you're absolutely right, it forces you to dig into questions that you might otherwise have skimmed over. And, as you've shown, it can be used in any part of life (though I think my sweet tooth needs more like eight or nine questions ...) I would just add that, for me, it's worth regularly checking -- "is this line of questioning helping me?"
The problem (ie the first why) is that you were holding your phone in your hand, unsecured, while trying to ride a scooter. Once we skipped past that point and never came back I was pretty puzzled
I've heard of this method before, but never actually learned how it worked. Thanks for this!
Hope it helps you!