Quiet as a Mouse
August 7, 2007 | permalink
What do you do, Gentle Readers, when you have a knotty problem you need to solve? Do you sit and pick at it, peering for any weakness or chink, searching for the first step and meticulously picking it apart thread by thread until you've unraveled it? Or do you set it down, and circle it from a distance, examining the whole thing, trying to hold the shape of it in your mind and understand it, and wait for it to tell you what the solution is?
I'm thinking about this because it is nearly Fashion season again, which is of course my busiest and most hectic time of year. The entire month of August is pretty much consumed with The Boys (and by The Boys I mean our design staff) designing and re-designing our shows, while Smacktalk and I, in our roles as the production department, try to figure out the least stupid way to implement the aforementioned designs. Sometimes the shows are relatively simple and straightforward, without any major challenges (even the simplest has minor challenges). And sometimes there are major challenges, but they are similar enough to something that one of us has encountered before that it isn't too long until we find an acceptable solution. Every once in a while, though, something comes up that really stumps us.
Which, really, is part of the fun of the job. I like the challenges that come up, a lot. What I find endlessly fascinating (aside from the problems themselves, of course) is how Smacktalk and I will consistently approach these problems in such completely different ways. He is far more methodical than I am, and will worry the problem apart by sheer stubbornness. Sometimes it is almost like the fact that the problem exists is a personal affront to him, and he cannot rest until it is resolved.
I, on the other hand, am content to mull it over and let it percolate in my head for a while. Often, while I am doing something else, the answer (or an answer, at least- I'm not claiming to be the be-all end-all here) become clear to me. I have a lot of Eureka! moments in the shower.
It's funny, too, because his way of doing things will often drive me nuts. And vice-versa- I know that it makes him crazy that I will seemingly ignore the problem that is driving him insane, just as it makes me crazy that he wants to talk the problem to death rather than let it sit for a bit.
So how about you? Are you a picker or a percolator?
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"the problem is a personal affront.."
that is genius. that is totally right on.
I think I tend to switch, depending.
i'm a percolator who totally thinks she's a picker. so i pick and pick and get nowhere and then, when i relax and just let it swirl around, that's when the answer comes.
or, as you say, an answer.
turtalia- ha ha ha, I know, right? It's kind of funny, how personal he takes it.
i do things like you, i think. i don't consciously think about problems, or i never get anywhere. i woolgather about it, and then just do whatever seems natural. i can refine the details methodically, but the big stuff all has to just happen. usually it works out.