Problems are instances of being stuck. “Problem solving” is supposedly what we’re doing when we’re getting unstuck. I teach a couple of courses on problem solving, and I can guarantee that “problem solving” is something that is neither easily taught, nor easily learned. The main reason this is so has to do with how our minds work. We have a peculiar relationship with stuckness.
Things keep changing until they don’t, until they reach a sticking point. Some sticking points go away after a short time, others after a longer time, but it would be hard to find a sticking point that lasts for all eternity. The important bit is that the experience of being stuck is what comes into play when the sticking point is lasting longer than we want it to.
Once we are unstuck (if we are so fortunate), we look back at the time when we were stuck, but we are probably unable to appreciate just how strongly stuck we felt at the time. Hindsight just doesn’t seem to help us. The next time we feel stuck, we may say to ourselves, “Ha! I’ve been stuck before, and things loosened up, and I moved forward.” That may provide some comfort for a few minutes. But when the sticking point du jour lasts longer than we want it to, and we experience stuckness again, our words to ourselves provide no real comfort. The experience may come at a different point in the course of the developing situation, thanks to our ability to learn, but once we reaching the sticking point that goes on too long, the experience can be as hard as it was last time.
“Problem solving” can’t really be practiced on things that aren’t problems, that aren’t sticking points. The exercises are too easy, and they won’t be easy to apply in the thick of it, when we are really stuck and have been for too long.
But it can be discouraging to try to practice “problem solving” on actual problems, because actual problems are where we are truly stuck, where the sticking point has already gone on longer than we want. Do you think we would still be at a sticking point like this, if it were actually easy or straightforward to get moving again?