 Some critics have mashed the Martian, saying that his plot is half-baked or that its science isn't golden. But whose opinion are you going to trust? Chris Hadfield or some commentator? I've mentioned the Martian before, and if you haven't read it yet, I still very much recommend that you pick up a copy. The movie, the audiobook, and the text version are each a lot of fun. In the story, astronaut Mark Watney is on one of the first manned missions to Mars when disaster strikes and the rest of his crew is forced to evacuate, leaving him stranded on the red planet all by himself. The book is written in a series of sarcastic audio logs left by Watney as he attempts to MacGyver together some way to stay alive in the hostile environment for years until the next Mars mission is scheduled to arrive, using only his wits and what limited supplies NASA left behind. One of the themes that pervades the book, besides an irreverent and seemingly unshakable sense of humor, is one of ingenuity and creative problem-solving. There are tons of back-of-the-envelope calculations and educated guesses as Watney tries to use his brain to keep himself alive, but it becomes clear that there's more to that process than simply crunching numbers. The Martian brilliantly illustrates something that very few works of fiction manage, because it's usually hidden away in characters' heads, and unless you're a very clever writer, almost impossible to make interesting. How does someone approach a problem to solve it? We generally don't want to hear about Luke's explicit plans for getting the princess out of her cell, or what exact thought process Danny Ocean uses to design the heist of the century. We love seeing these plans executed, and we can appreciate their elegance and retrospect, but the actual sitting down and figuring stuff out part? Not so much. However, there is something remarkably valuable about the details of that process. How we go about finding solutions is just as important as the solutions themselves. The right answer might allow us to move forward, but a good process for finding answers is what allows us to keep moving forward. To that end, there are some tactics that I've collected here which seem to be useful for solving just about any problem in just about any context. This isn't a comprehensive list by any means. There are thousands of useful concepts for problem solving, but I think that these ones are very generally applicable and especially useful. Idea number one, separate creativity from analysis. The general idea here is that your brain has two gears, generation and judgment, and constantly shifting back and forth between them, like only trying to come up with good ideas, can impede the effectiveness of both processes. Instead, it can be more effective to start with a pure creation phase, where one doesn't worry about quality, but instead works to come up with as many ideas, even stupid or unworkable ones, over as broad a range as possible. Then, when the frenzy has died down, they go back and edit. They decide which ideas are most promising and concentrate their efforts on developing them. This can ensure that harsh analysis doesn't get in the way of your idea generation and that you don't find yourself coming up with new ideas when you're halfway finished with a project. One quick note, if you're working on a team, research shows that you should brainstorm individually and then analyze those ideas together as a group. Group brainstorming tends to be counterproductive and result in a narrower range of ideas, because as soon as somebody says something, everybody else starts thinking along the same lines. Sources in the description. Idea number two, balance testing and thinking. There are two problem-solving loops that are very easy to get stuck in if you're not paying attention. Tell me if you've ever experienced one of these before. In one case, someone who's trying to solve a problem just tries any random thing that comes to mind without really thinking, in the hopes that inspiration will strike while they're fiddling with it. Why doesn't the internet work? I don't know. Let's try rebooting the router, run new cable, and reinstall windows. In another case, someone sits in stairs at a pitiful smattering of information and imagines every single thing that it might mean without gaining any additional insight or making any headway on solving the problem. Well, it could be that your Wi-Fi radio is off, or maybe the router is, or maybe the modem is, or maybe Western civilization has collapsed and taken the internet with it. Ideally, we want to use the two alternately, try something, examine the results, then update our ideas about what's happening and why and what to do about it. That's basically what science is, but it's important to not get too caught up in any particular part of that cycle. Idea number three, break the problem down, but remember what the problem actually is. Often, problems are just too big to handle in their entirety. Something like survive on Mars for years with only a few months of supplies is way too complicated to handle all at once, not the least reason of which is because it's terrifying. Watney starts with, how do I survive the next few hours? How much air do I need? Where can I get it? How many calories do I need per day? How much food do I have? One thing at a time. On the flip side of this, it's important to bear in mind that problem solving is an engrossing task, and it's very easy to get lost down rabbit holes of optimizing sub-problems. As someone who frequently gets fixated on something like scrubbing the grout in the shower, when what I'm really trying to do is get the apartment clean for guests in the next half hour, this is a personal bugaboo of mine. Looking up from your work every so often and thinking of how what you're doing fits into the bigger picture is a difficult thing to bear in mind, but it's absolutely critical for ensuring that you're not wasting time and energy on something that might have become irrelevant as the situation changes. You don't want to be the dude who finally invents the perfect car phone in 2010. Idea number four, take breaks. Like I said, solving problems is an engrossing thing and it can often become a sort of positive feedback loop. We're a problem bugs us so we work on it and we can't solve it at first so it bugs us more so we work on it harder and that cycle repeats until we've either solved it or broken down sobbing in the fetal position. There is compelling research which shows that human brains actually work on problems even when we're not actively considering them, making connections and finding answers sometimes when we're literally unconscious. For the low low price of a few hours of downtime you might get the answer for free. If you're not getting anywhere it might just be because you're tired. Go do something else for a while and then come back to the problem with a fresh set of eyes. Idea number five, talk it out. Speaking of a fresh set of eyes it's amazing how much mileage you can get out of a brief conversation with someone else or something else. In programming there's a practice known as rubber duck debugging where a coder sits down in front of their computer and explains their code line by line to a rubber duck. Incredibly this process actually results in the programmer catching errors even in code which they've reviewed by themselves numerous times. We use different parts of our brains to explain things to others and bringing them into the mix can help us find answers. Also if you get another person to look at the problem with you you get the added benefit of an entirely different perspective on it and often a set of solutions that you might never have thought of. Idea six, keep an attitude of engagement. Perhaps the most notable problem solving technique in the Martian is tied to Mark Watney's character. No matter how badly his plans fail, no matter what sort of immense setback he's forced to confront, Mark is quick to toss off some sort of quip or wisecrack and then start to work on the new problem. Optimists tend to be better problem solvers than pessimists. This isn't due to any sort of magical power of positive thinking or harmony with the universe. It's just that optimists tend to believe that a solution exists and that they can find it if they think hard enough. This leads them to engage positively with their obstacles, to actively try to figure out what they can do to overcome them. It's not necessary to have a rosy outlook to find solutions, but it frequently is necessary to actively look for solutions, to spend mental energy searching for an answer. You're not going to find one if you don't try. That might sound a little self-helpish or tautological, but for many people, if there isn't an obvious solution from the beginning, that's kind of the end of the story. Well, if there is an answer, I can't see it. Guess I'll knock off early for lunch. There's a reason one of the tracks on the Martian soundtrack is called Work the Problem. It's a key element of Watney's strategy, just continuously trying to find solutions. Now, again, this isn't a comprehensive list. You'll undoubtedly find your own strategies that work particularly well in your job or a game or anywhere that you're trying to figure something out. But these ones have been especially useful for me. And if you've never explicitly thought about how you go about solving problems before, they might give you some sort of starting point to develop your own. Hopefully, you do so sometime before you're stranded on Mars. What are your favorite problem-solving tactics? Please leave a comment below and let me know what you think. Thank you very much for watching. Don't forget to blah, blah, subscribe, blah, share, and don't stop dunking.