A complicated problem is like a turkey.

Too big to swallow whole.  So you cut it into parts.  We made some pages to help you carve that turkey.

     For every complex problem, there is a solution
 that is simple, neat, and wrong.

Six common parts to complicated problems:

Define the problem.   You do this along with getting ideas, so it doesn't need a separate page.  Bur keep in mind that you may need an idea about how to redefine the problem. 

Get ideas.  You get ideas about how to solve the problem or ideas about how to redefine it to make it easier to solve.

Choose one idea to plan.   You may choose an idea that wilts in planning.  No worries.  These pages are reusable. 

Plan the concrete details.  You need plans to know what you will have to do.  This is where you finally decide what to do.  .  If the plan is bigger than your head, you may want to unload some of it.  Use paper or your computer.  If the plan has a few steps, you may want to schedule it on your calendar.

No plan is complete without cues.

You may not like what you have to do.    Then you get to go back and change your plans.

In planning, you don’t have to be right the first time. 

You just want to be right the last time.

Do it. 

Troubleshoot.  You will have to adjust your plan.   You will fix things that don’t go as you expected.  You will cope with things you didn’t expect.  Troubleshooting is so much a part of the problem-solving routine that we made a page for it. 

No all problems have all these parts.  But if you have a problem, one of these parts is the keyhole.  Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to find the keyhole and make a key to fit.  The pages linked on the right will serve as your questing gear.