Cat's Rules For Solving Difficult and Impossible Problems

People who solve problems that others cannot often are labeled as brilliant or especially talented. Perhaps they merely have attended one of my lectures on the subject and applied my principles for problem solving, as I demonstrate often in Book One. Below I share my secrets:

Secret # 1. Rid yourself of unnecessary limitations. Think outside the box, bag, room, or whatever limiting factors that you think the problem contains.

Problem A. The Nine Egg/Dot Puzzle.

This puzzle and variations have been around for a long time, but it perfectly demonstrates secret # 1. On a sheet of paper place 9 smallish eggs or dots in a three by three grid--three across and three down. Then take a pen or pencil and, without lifting it off the paper, connect all the dots with straight lines. See if you can do it with only 4 straight lines. Try to solve without the hint below.

Hint for Problem A.  If you had trouble doing the puzzle, it is likely that you failed to think outside the "box." We instinctively create limits to help us analyze situations in a contained and defined way. While often helpful, such limits can stifle a creative solution. The solution to this puzzle requires you to abandon such limitations and take your straight lines outside the "implied" box of the grid.

Secret # 2.  Expand your toolbox. Acquire as many, and as much, of  the following tools as possible: common sense, experience, web searching skills, knowledge of physics and other sciences, cooperating friends, and positive thinking. The more of these tools you possess, the easier it will be to find creative solutions that others miss.

[Finding an example of common sense by humans was very challenging. See the remaining problems below.]

Secret # 3. Redefine the problem. Recognize that if people have worked on this problem with no, or limited, success,  you likely won't solve it by a straightforward approach--unless you are a top expert in that field. You need to open your mind and find a different way to look at the problem or to state the problem. This often leads to an unexpected way to solve the problem.

Problem B. The Time Paradox.

Older Jane  is 25 years old and healthy. On her 25th birthday she travels to another country and contracts a fatal disease while there.  She returns home to be told she has only weeks to live as there is no cure. Therefore, Older Jane  agrees to enroll in a time travel experiment. The test has huge risks of failure with physical harm or death. It has an unknown chance of success.  Older Jane  agrees to the experiment.

 It works and Older Jane goes back and warns Younger Jane not to travel to that other country. Younger Jane  heads the warning and leads a healthy life up to and past her 25th birthday.

How can Older Jane  and Younger Jane  both be true at the same time--shortly after her 25th birthday?

How can Younger  Jane have avoided that ill-fated trip and fatal disease if there was no dying Older Jane willing to risk time travel?  The chicken or the egg? How do you have the essential warning to Younger Jane about avoiding the disease if the disease has not already infected Older Jane?

Hint for Problem B. There is no actual answer, just theories. But to advance a workable theory, you need a different question. The present question is "How can these two things be true at the same time." The question is based upon a natural assumption that Old Jane would go back and successfully warn Young Jane. Never take an assumption for granted.

Secret # 4. Not every problem requires a unique solution. This seems obvious, but so many brilliant minds just won't accept an easy answer. (See Book One's Negative Space-Time solution to the faster than expected expansion of the Universe.) They want to find an extraordinary solution which then demonstrates how smart they are. But if you want to pound in a nail and you have a hammer handy, why look any further? Yes, you can always seek to build a better mouse trap if that is your objective.

There are exceptions to this rule--of course. Like in chess or other games of strategy. If you can easily maneuver so as to capture your opponent's queen, why look any further? Because it may be a trap, a sacrifice by your opponent so that they gain a winning advantage over you in the long run.

Summary of Rules. It is all so simple, right? Do not accept assumptions unless they are valid. Do not place limitations on the problem and solution unless they cannot be avoided. Do not accept the current statement or definition of a problem, until you have looked at it upside down, sideways, inside-out, and outside the box. Finally, consider the ripple effects of any proposed solution. It might look good in the short-run--but what next?

All of these rules and advice may seem to conflict with themselves, because they do! That is where the common sense, general knowledge, and subconscious analysis come into play. (See Book One for a full explanation of subconscious analysis.) If you are any good at this, you'll sense when you are on the right track.

You really didn't think finding unique solutions would be easy did you?

Now try these two.

Problem C - Multiple Solutions. A container of water is fixed to a table with a prize floating on top of the water 20" below the only opening which is at the top of the container. There is a tiny loop on one side of that prize. The opening in the container is just big enough (about one inch) to lift the prize out, but will not allow a hand to enter. How many different solutions can you come up with.

Think about it, outside the container, before hitting the answer button.

Problem D - Different Solutions Depending on How You State the Goal.  You need to pound a nail into something wooden. If you do not have a hammer, what about a substitute--like a rock. Yet you can do better than that. Think about compressed air and a tube....

What if the nail isn't acting as a nail but a peg? A peg to lock two pieces together without needing that tight fit by hammering something in. If you have a drill, you can drill a "pilot" hole just the same size as the nail for a tighter fit or just larger for an easy fit. No hammer needed.

See what I did there? I changed the usual way of stating the problem. Instead of a hammer and nail, it became a peg and drill. By examining the goal closely, you may be able to restate the problem. And, if you needed that peg to lock in, there is always glue.