This is a deep insight disguised as an everyday observation about shopping or gardening.
How do quantum computers solve problems? How do quantum elements in plants solve optimization problems in photosynthesis? It is about maintaining coherence so that all solutions can be explored and the right one left standing at decoherence.
I think the mental state of openness to context you suggest is a version of this -- staying open to all possibilities until an attractor draws us to the solution. Your piece inspires me to write more about this.
I can’t walk by a box hedge without dreaming of how to create a parterre like those in the Rousham Gardens somewhere in our yard. As the context of our lives shifts so does the idea of the possible form of our gardens.
Your essay though made me think of the context of making art and the form it takes when I consider trying to make it fit a market. What if I just didn’t consider market fit? What if I made art to fit the context of my life alone? Would that make my art “better”, so much so that a market I can’t conceive emerges? I wonder. Your comment in July that writing few essays per year would be an ideal, but you can’t imagine anyone funding that project runs similar lines. Van Gogh sold one painting in his lifetime. One. And yet what he created now resonates with so many people, and that a market emerged for his work is undeniable. He just didn’t see it happen. I want to explore the personal context for art and what success (or the perfect solution) to making it looks like given what your essay makes me think about “form fits context”. Thanks.
> What if I just didn’t consider market fit? What if I made art to fit the context of my life alone?
Yes, what is the most salient context? "Art market" is one but "fulfilling life" is another -- how do we understand the relationship of different contexts to each other?
Oh, I love this thought, Lawrence. It makes me wonder if all decisions might be aimed at “fulfilling life” as the Uber-context. I ask the question “What if I just didn’t consider market fit?” from a long history of always considering the market and a new ability to not consider it. Leading a fulfilling life has always been a filter for solutions to whatever I’m doing. So, I’d love to explore more about how we understand the relationship of different contexts, as you suggest.
Very nice. Thank you. I thought I was the only weirdo who thought about these things so much. I used to be in a high control spiritual group. The leader used to make decisions for me. When I left him, I was in my forties and it was awkward because I didn’t know how to make my own decisions. It took a few years for me to feel comfortable making decisions without him. In that process, I ended up becoming very interested in this topic. Your article is very helpful! Thank you!
“If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem in five minutes thinking about solutions”
- Albert Einstein
“When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex… Most people stop there. But if you keep going, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can often times arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions.
I loved this and am now eagerly awaiting the next part. We’ve lived in the same place for 27 years now and have ever so slowly reshaped the environment around our old farmhouse in a way reminiscent of your form fits context approach … except for the back “yard” (maybe we should send you guys some photos, perhaps you’ll see it). It remains a puzzle to us, but this approach of yours may open something up (once I get Sara to read it too). PS: loved the line “not yet fully funded” in your closing call to action! Who the hell is?
When I was in my senior year of high school I was able to take a college level physics class taught by Dr. Benjamin Bloch. It was an excellent physics class, per se. Not only did I learn the physics so deeply that I remember all of it even today (I’m 67 years old now), I have continued to study physics and the complex mathematics needed to understand it since taking that class in 1977. It is a wonderful avocation.
But that wasn’t the best part of the class. Dr. Bloch taught us how to solve problems. Any problem. How to choose a college major, which car to buy, how to choose your spouse. Physics was simply his theatre.
He taught us “Bloch’s Method” of problem solving:
1. Given
2. To Get
3. Basic Principles
4. Pertinent Equations
5. Analytic solution
6. Numerical solution
Reading this post about problem solving stopped me in my tracks. I was reminded of Dr. Bloch.
I smiled to myself. I could see him in my mind’s eye in front of the class, pacing around the room unable to contain his energy and his smile. The face of a man who knows something important and absolutely can’t wait to share it.
I focused my attention back to the post which seemed to be saying, “here is a method for solving problems. Let me show you how to design and create a garden with it.”
The post was amazing. It was also an epiphany. The isomorphism with Bloch’s Method shook the ground. But the authors present an even more concise process:
1. Understand the context; context= the problem; this is Bloch’s method steps 1-4
2. Catch the form as it falls into your hands from step #1; form= solution; This is Bloch’s Method steps 5-6
Needless to say, I’ve already ordered the book recommended by the authors, “Notes on the Synthesis of Form”.
I’ll be thinking about this post today when I sit down to write. In fact, I applied the authors’ method to writing this commentary.
Oh, you’re also probably wondering. Did I actually use Bloch’s method to choose my spouse?
Nope. I met her on a blind date arranged by my medical school roommate. Love at first sight. We got engaged 6 weeks later. We’ve been together for 42 years. There are times when you solve problems with your pre-frontal cortex. But sometimes you gotta trust your gut.
Great post! I really, really enjoyed reading it. It provided me with the most useful information about problem solving that I have come across since 1977. Thank you very, very much. 🙏
I was watching “Our Oceans” on Netflix the other day and meditating on this—how each animal is such a beautiful expression of its context. And how humans are thrust into and create such different contexts (such varying motivations and interests and circumstances). Beautiful too if we could all understand and live our contexts, like dolphins or octopuses or manta rays…
I'm really moved by how, in a different part of the world, someone with different context, background and nationality converge towards the same interest as mine.
I myself am fascinated by the idea of form-context fit in the context of product management, even wrote a blog post about it myself (n Vietnamese, though browser translation feature may also work): https://www.thomastheproductguy.net/form-context-fit/
I wholeheartedly think this is a powerful and beautiful concept. Love how you and Johanna applied to making a great garden and writing great essays.
I took time to read your piece and I see how products can be created without understanding what the user wants which stems from a perspective issue or a faulty process in proper problem evaluation.
You truly deserve this success as a writer. You have something unique in the way you pull together different ideas and influences. Very beautiful. I’m learning.
Beautiful visuals in this writing. Sharing a message through a powerfully relatable story makes this so rich.
I think the learning needs to continue past understanding a problem. You need to also spend time learning about the options you have for solutions. We can get secondarily bogged down in wondering if there is always a better solution than we are aware of, and often there is. We must decide how much time is allowed to finding the best solution and make the best of the flawed information about solutions that we have.
This brilliant essay could not have come at a better time for me, as I grapple with which direction to focus on in my life going forward. Truly enjoyed reading this.
“If the answer is right, who cares if the question is wrong?” - The Dodecahedron (from The Phantom Tollbooth). The sentiment captures so much thinking.
This is a deep insight disguised as an everyday observation about shopping or gardening.
How do quantum computers solve problems? How do quantum elements in plants solve optimization problems in photosynthesis? It is about maintaining coherence so that all solutions can be explored and the right one left standing at decoherence.
I think the mental state of openness to context you suggest is a version of this -- staying open to all possibilities until an attractor draws us to the solution. Your piece inspires me to write more about this.
I can’t walk by a box hedge without dreaming of how to create a parterre like those in the Rousham Gardens somewhere in our yard. As the context of our lives shifts so does the idea of the possible form of our gardens.
Your essay though made me think of the context of making art and the form it takes when I consider trying to make it fit a market. What if I just didn’t consider market fit? What if I made art to fit the context of my life alone? Would that make my art “better”, so much so that a market I can’t conceive emerges? I wonder. Your comment in July that writing few essays per year would be an ideal, but you can’t imagine anyone funding that project runs similar lines. Van Gogh sold one painting in his lifetime. One. And yet what he created now resonates with so many people, and that a market emerged for his work is undeniable. He just didn’t see it happen. I want to explore the personal context for art and what success (or the perfect solution) to making it looks like given what your essay makes me think about “form fits context”. Thanks.
> What if I just didn’t consider market fit? What if I made art to fit the context of my life alone?
Yes, what is the most salient context? "Art market" is one but "fulfilling life" is another -- how do we understand the relationship of different contexts to each other?
Oh, I love this thought, Lawrence. It makes me wonder if all decisions might be aimed at “fulfilling life” as the Uber-context. I ask the question “What if I just didn’t consider market fit?” from a long history of always considering the market and a new ability to not consider it. Leading a fulfilling life has always been a filter for solutions to whatever I’m doing. So, I’d love to explore more about how we understand the relationship of different contexts, as you suggest.
Very nice. Thank you. I thought I was the only weirdo who thought about these things so much. I used to be in a high control spiritual group. The leader used to make decisions for me. When I left him, I was in my forties and it was awkward because I didn’t know how to make my own decisions. It took a few years for me to feel comfortable making decisions without him. In that process, I ended up becoming very interested in this topic. Your article is very helpful! Thank you!
I love the metaphor you used about the Sudoku - it really opened up my eyes. Thanks for this, life changing really.
Similar thoughts:
“A problem well put is half solved.”
- John Dewey
“If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem in five minutes thinking about solutions”
- Albert Einstein
“When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex… Most people stop there. But if you keep going, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can often times arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions.
- Steve Jobs
I loved this and am now eagerly awaiting the next part. We’ve lived in the same place for 27 years now and have ever so slowly reshaped the environment around our old farmhouse in a way reminiscent of your form fits context approach … except for the back “yard” (maybe we should send you guys some photos, perhaps you’ll see it). It remains a puzzle to us, but this approach of yours may open something up (once I get Sara to read it too). PS: loved the line “not yet fully funded” in your closing call to action! Who the hell is?
When I was in my senior year of high school I was able to take a college level physics class taught by Dr. Benjamin Bloch. It was an excellent physics class, per se. Not only did I learn the physics so deeply that I remember all of it even today (I’m 67 years old now), I have continued to study physics and the complex mathematics needed to understand it since taking that class in 1977. It is a wonderful avocation.
But that wasn’t the best part of the class. Dr. Bloch taught us how to solve problems. Any problem. How to choose a college major, which car to buy, how to choose your spouse. Physics was simply his theatre.
He taught us “Bloch’s Method” of problem solving:
1. Given
2. To Get
3. Basic Principles
4. Pertinent Equations
5. Analytic solution
6. Numerical solution
Reading this post about problem solving stopped me in my tracks. I was reminded of Dr. Bloch.
I smiled to myself. I could see him in my mind’s eye in front of the class, pacing around the room unable to contain his energy and his smile. The face of a man who knows something important and absolutely can’t wait to share it.
I focused my attention back to the post which seemed to be saying, “here is a method for solving problems. Let me show you how to design and create a garden with it.”
The post was amazing. It was also an epiphany. The isomorphism with Bloch’s Method shook the ground. But the authors present an even more concise process:
1. Understand the context; context= the problem; this is Bloch’s method steps 1-4
2. Catch the form as it falls into your hands from step #1; form= solution; This is Bloch’s Method steps 5-6
Needless to say, I’ve already ordered the book recommended by the authors, “Notes on the Synthesis of Form”.
I’ll be thinking about this post today when I sit down to write. In fact, I applied the authors’ method to writing this commentary.
Oh, you’re also probably wondering. Did I actually use Bloch’s method to choose my spouse?
Nope. I met her on a blind date arranged by my medical school roommate. Love at first sight. We got engaged 6 weeks later. We’ve been together for 42 years. There are times when you solve problems with your pre-frontal cortex. But sometimes you gotta trust your gut.
Great post! I really, really enjoyed reading it. It provided me with the most useful information about problem solving that I have come across since 1977. Thank you very, very much. 🙏
I was watching “Our Oceans” on Netflix the other day and meditating on this—how each animal is such a beautiful expression of its context. And how humans are thrust into and create such different contexts (such varying motivations and interests and circumstances). Beautiful too if we could all understand and live our contexts, like dolphins or octopuses or manta rays…
I'm really moved by how, in a different part of the world, someone with different context, background and nationality converge towards the same interest as mine.
I myself am fascinated by the idea of form-context fit in the context of product management, even wrote a blog post about it myself (n Vietnamese, though browser translation feature may also work): https://www.thomastheproductguy.net/form-context-fit/
I wholeheartedly think this is a powerful and beautiful concept. Love how you and Johanna applied to making a great garden and writing great essays.
I took time to read your piece and I see how products can be created without understanding what the user wants which stems from a perspective issue or a faulty process in proper problem evaluation.
You truly deserve this success as a writer. You have something unique in the way you pull together different ideas and influences. Very beautiful. I’m learning.
Beautiful visuals in this writing. Sharing a message through a powerfully relatable story makes this so rich.
I think the learning needs to continue past understanding a problem. You need to also spend time learning about the options you have for solutions. We can get secondarily bogged down in wondering if there is always a better solution than we are aware of, and often there is. We must decide how much time is allowed to finding the best solution and make the best of the flawed information about solutions that we have.
This brilliant essay could not have come at a better time for me, as I grapple with which direction to focus on in my life going forward. Truly enjoyed reading this.
“If the answer is right, who cares if the question is wrong?” - The Dodecahedron (from The Phantom Tollbooth). The sentiment captures so much thinking.
Hey Henrik and Johanna! I really enjoyed reading this piece. Is the next installment of this piece out?
Is there a second part?
Hi Henrik,
Thank you for such a great piece.
As other fellow commentators of this post, I am eager to read the next part !
Thank you