Designolution.
In Part I and Part II of this series, I explored radically different approaches to problem solving, including:
The Rational Approach
The Empirical Approach
The Subjectivist/Attentional Approach
The Intuitive/Super-Conscious Cognition Apporach
The Holistic/Network Analysis Approach
Too often we fall into the trap of thinking about a problem in a single way, and come up short because our habitual thinking mode isn’t best suited for the problem at hand. For example, if we try to to apply an empirical problem solving approach to a situation that is in massive flux, we may find that our data regarding what has worked in the past to be useless (aka driving forwards while looking out the rear window).
Another vulnerability of empiricism is the likelihood of discounting the possibility of low-probability/high impact (black swan) events. Just because an event has never happened (and has therefore never been observed) doesn’t mean that it can’t happen.