TNF #111: Puzzle observations

Welcome Professionals…

…When I recently came into the room that I use as my office at home, I discovered that my 8 year old daughter had layed out a jigsaw puzzle on the floor. I think it consists of 500 parts and she had just got started with the frame.

Puzzle

I could not resist to take a look at the puzzle parts every time I passed them, trying to find at least one additional fitting piece. Although it is absolutely not my business and my daughter will probably be angry with me if I make some visible progress, I just had to give it a try everytime I gazed the pile of parts.

When I finally left the room, a couple of observations occurred to me:

  • I seem to have a natural drive towards finding solutions for problems, even when they are clearly not my business.
  • It helps to get started with the big picture!
  • It helps to form a hypothesis which puzzle part is going to fit next before looking at the big pile of parts!
  • As a rule, I will not find the puzzle part I was looking for, but come across another part that will make a good addition to the big picture along the way.
  • Trial and error is a necessity to make progress.
  • The process is more fun than taking pride in the end result!

I leave you with this and wish you great fun in puzzling out the problems of your client!

Malte

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