Member-only story

My theory on problem solving

Jason Hee
4 min readOct 5, 2021

--

Photo by karlahrnndz on Unsplash

As a software engineer, my main job is to solve problems. I am faced with business and customer problems every day. After years of solving problems, I have developed my own theory on problems and the problem-solving process.

The first step to solving a problem is to face it

It is tempting to run away from or avoid a hard problem. It seems like the human psyche likes to pretend that a problem does not exist, or that it will go away on its own. But rarely do problems resolve themselves. It takes a conscious decision on one’s part to face a problem straight-on. If you refuse to acknowledge a problem, you will not solve it.

I have found that avoiding or ignoring a problem is the worst way to handle it. Whenever I have tried avoiding a problem, be it at work or in my personal life, I eventually found myself facing a bigger problem.

To avoid major problems, solve the simple problems

A lot of the time, the underlying cause of a major problem is a litany of simple problems. Small problems can become large problems if left alone. If you let your email pile up and start using your inbox as a to-do list, you may find thousands of unread mail in your inbox. And then you start to wonder why you are losing track of important things.

--

--

Jason Hee
Jason Hee

Written by Jason Hee

I’m a software engineer who loves tech

No responses yet