# the core of problem solving

**Published by:** [pitaya](https://paragraph.com/@pitaya/)
**Published on:** 2022-10-19
**URL:** https://paragraph.com/@pitaya/the-core-of-problem-solving

## Content

I always believe that the core of problem solving is to disassemble the problem. If the whole problem can be divided into several units, the difficulty of solving each unit will be greatly reduced. You will find that the whole problem can be solved simply by tackling one of the units. McKinsey Consulting believes that in the vast majority of cases, the failure to solve problems is due to the failure to split the structure of the problem, to clarify the types of problems, or to maximize the role of auxiliary tools that help thinking. for instance. When you go to college, you will choose a certain major, when you are studying for a master's degree, you will choose a certain research direction under a certain major, and when you are studying for a doctor, you will often choose a problem in a certain direction under a certain major. After you become a postdoctoral student, you will study a certain point of a certain problem in a certain direction under a certain major. It is the breakthrough of this point that may drive the development of the whole discipline, and the development of the discipline may drive the development of the whole science. In the case of "How to put an elephant in a refrigerator", the first step is to open the refrigerator door, the second step is to put an elephant in, and the third step is to close the refrigerator door. After some analysis, you will find that no matter what the basic goal is, the first step and the third step seem to have no technical difficulty, and the only thing to pay attention to is the second step. Then go on disassembling: is it the refrigerator, the elephant, or the packing method? Disassemble it further... until it is disassembled into small points. As long as any small point is solved, the whole problem is very likely to be solved. The process of disassembly is the process of disassembling problems and finding structures.The problem of disassembly is not to dismantle randomly, but to follow a very strict disassembly principle - MECE principle, that is, "mutual independence and complete exhaustion". When using this principle, you need to distinguish between two situations. The first situation is that predecessors have summarized some experience. You can use the previous classification framework to disassemble problems. This is a closed disassembly; The second situation is that there is no previous experience or a new problem, which requires you to classify and disassemble the problem based on your own understanding of MECE principles. You can also use different disassembly methods according to your understanding of the problem. For example, if you have a certain understanding of the problem, roughly determine the direction of solving the problem, or have previous disassembly experience, you can use the top-down disassembly method; However, if you have neither direction nor experience, you need to use the bottom-up disassembly method to list all known elements, continuously classify and summarize them, and finally build a problem framework. When disassembling the key elements, if you can't come up with several solutions at all, it means that your thinking and cognition have not been completely exhausted. At this time, you should use the key logic of horizontal argument to help you improve your thinking. The so-called key logic of horizontal argumentation refers to the order that the horizontal structure in the pyramid structure needs to conform to, specifically including three orders of time, structure and importance in the inductive structure. In the process of disassembling key elements, you can use these logical sequences to help you expand your thinking and find more solutions. When a problem is disassembled from the whole into parts in a certain way and in a certain order, the reasons behind the problem are often hidden in each part, but these reasons are large and small, explicit and implicit, and some occur first and some occur later. If you only rely on your own feelings and impressions of these complex causes, you can hardly finally determine the real causes. Therefore, you need to use some specific tools, such as quantitative cause analysis tools. The following text will respectively describe the top-down and bottom-up ways of disassembling problems, the ways of using deduction and induction to expand ideas, and the methods of using quantitative cause analysis tools to lock the root causes after disassembly.

## Publication Information

- [pitaya](https://paragraph.com/@pitaya/): Publication homepage
- [All Posts](https://paragraph.com/@pitaya/): More posts from this publication
- [RSS Feed](https://api.paragraph.com/blogs/rss/@pitaya): Subscribe to updates