Forcing your solution on a problem

There is a something that I think many of us are guilty of from time to time. When you become proficient in a particular language or technology, it is very tempting to want to apply your tool of choice to solve whatever problem that comes along, even if a more objective perspective might show that there is a far more appropriate solution.

My Uncle John is in town visiting from New Hampshire, so I stopped at my parents’ house yesterday after work to chat with him for a bit. He and my father have at least 60 years of combined electrical engineering experience, and it is always interesting to me how many parallels there are between the problems and solutions in their industry when compared to the problems and solutions that I experience in software development. My uncle was talking about the problem of choosing the solution before you understand the problem, and how designer engineers often try to force their particular niche into circuitry design, whether it is the right solution or not. Obviously as a programmer I have seen the same behavior, and have certainly been guilty of it myself. He told me that when doing presentations, he has often told this story:

“So last night I was on my way out to the parking lot and I came across this guy under the big light out there. He was down on his hands and knees looking around. When I asked what he was doing, he told me that he had dropped his keys and was looking for them. Having a few extra minutes I figured I would help out so I asked him ‘OK, how big of a radius are we looking in here?’ while spreading my arms out in the area he was looking. The guy looked up kind of perplexed and said ‘No, the keys are over there…’ pointing across the lot ‘… but the light is much better over here’.”

It didn’t matter what the problem was. The guy had his solution whether it fit or not. I think it is healthy for us to remind ourselves not to fall in that trap.