Michael Reed

You can have everything needed to solve a problem sitting in front of you and still fail to see the solution. The missing piece is sometimes not a new tool, more information, or greater effort. It is a different way of seeing what the available tool can do. Functional fixedness is one of several constraints … Read more

You solve a problem successfully, so the next time something similar appears, you reach for the same method. That is usually sensible. Experience saves time, reduces uncertainty, and helps you avoid rediscovering what already works. The difficulty begins when yesterday’s successful route becomes today’s automatic answer, even though the problem has changed. In psychology, this … Read more

You can work hard on a problem and still make little progress if the problem has been defined in a way that points your attention in the wrong direction. A team may ask, “How do we make people attend more meetings?” when the more useful question is, “What information actually needs live discussion?” A student … Read more

A problem can feel impossible even when the missing ingredient is not a better solution. Sometimes the difficulty begins earlier, with the version of the problem you are trying to solve. You may be focusing on the wrong starting point, treating an assumption as a rule, overlooking a relationship between facts, or aiming at a … Read more

You know something needs to change, but what kind of thinking does the situation actually require? Sometimes you need to invent a workable path because none is obvious. Other times you already have several reasonable options and the real task is choosing between them. Treating those two situations as the same can create unnecessary work. … Read more

You can know that something is wrong and still have no idea what to do with it. A project keeps missing deadlines. A study routine produces hours of effort but weak recall. A household expense keeps rising even after several attempts to cut it. In each case, the difficulty is not simply choosing an answer. … Read more

A problem becomes mentally demanding when there is a gap between where you are and where you want to be, but the route across it is unclear. The obstacle may be practical, social, or conceptual. Sometimes the difficulty is not lack of effort. It is that the problem has been represented or framed in a … Read more