There are two ways to solve a problem:
- Change the context
- Destroy the question
Everything else is an implementation detail.
Changing the context means to move up, down, or adjacent. For example, if you can’t find a job in one city, you might move to another. This is an adjacent change of context. Or if you can’t build a house, you might start with assembling a tent. This is moving to a lower context.
Destroying questions takes different forms depending on the domain.
The most common way to destroy a question is to create an explanation. You don’t prove things are true; you eliminate that which is false.
This process yields answers through the creation of knowledge and the elimination of misconceptions.
It is effective in domains that deal with physical reality. It is not as effective in others.
In other domains—I’ll use the term metaphysical as an umbrella that includes psychic, spiritual, emotional—you make progress through understanding the question.
This process does not yield answers or the creation of new knowledge. It is better described as forgetting, de-conditioning, or unlearning.
Eventually, you don’t have any more questions.
What does this have to do with solving problems?
It doesn’t matter the domain: advancement occurs through subtraction.