Why on earth would you accept the idea that an exit row seat needs two tray tables?

A high speed trip in an ambulance is never a good thing but it can lead to great learning.

A bit over a year ago I decided I was going to put most of my effort for the year into getting a message out in to the world. I'm fed up with the sorry state of problem solving in the world, and I see unsolved or poorly-solved problems everywhere. I'm tired of it. It wastes people's time and money, tests their patience, and means incalculable costs to our economy and human prosperity. 

But there's good news. 

I was reflecting on my bungee jumping past and how we can make a decision that is correct for us at one point in time but is not right at another.

I was trying to figure out how to present the characteristics of a great problem solver in a physical shape for an MIT course I was teaching. This is what I came up with:

I've been pretty busy with an exciting new project to help the world make radically better decisions. As you may have guessed, it's about helping people become better problem solvers. The sorry state of problem solving in the world drives me nuts on an almost daily basis. So I want to do something about it. 

What are your advisors hiding from you?

Have you noticed that people often hold an opinion that something should change in a certain direction? Get bigger or smaller. But they have not considered by how much. Not a basis for great decision making. At work or in society.