Gerald M. Weinberg

Donald C. Gause

How to Figure Out what the Problem Really is

Are Your Lights On?

A Practical Guide for Everyone Involved in Product and Systems Development The fledgling problem solver invariably rushes in with solutions before taking time to define the problem being solved. Even experienced solvers, when subjected to social pressure, yield to this demand for haste. When they do, many solutions are found, but not necessarily to the problem at hand. Whether you are a novice or a veteran, this powerful little book will make you a more effective problem solver. Anyone involved in product and systems development will appreciate this practical illustrated guide, which was first published in 1982 and has since become a cult classic. Offering such insights as "A problem is a difference between things as desired and things as perceived, " and "In spite of appearances, people seldom know what they want until you give them what they ask for, " authors Don Gause and Jerry Weinberg provide an entertaining look at ways to improve one's thinking power. The book playfully instructs the reader first to identify the problem, second to determine the problem's owner, third to identify where the problem came from, and fourth to determine whether or not to solve it. Delightfully illustrated with 55 line drawings, the book conveys a message that will change the way you think about projects and problems.

Huseyin Polat Yuruk

Tuago

I couldn't go past a few chapters as I didn't understand where was the lesson to be learned behind the dumb jokes

Artas Bartas

Typically, I avoid reading business books published back in the day. Unlike fiction, business advice tends to age badly. More dedicated readers with fewer children might think that wrestling with bad economic theory, monotonous writing style, and casual sexism/racism remarks to discover a few nuggets of insight is a fair trade. Not me. I consider my time too precious (and my mental state too fragile) to be indulging in such pastimes. 

As a result, I approached "Are your lights on?" with a lot of caution. Oh, how wrong I was. In a nutshell, this book breaks all the rules of modern publishing, which is exactly what makes it such a valuable read. But let's start at the beginning. "Are your lights on?" could be best described as a light-hearted introduction to problem-solving. Each chapter contains half a dozen of real-life problems, lots of unconventional solutions, and pithy slogans helping the reader to learn a bigger lesson hiding in the story. 

Authors Donald Gause and Gerald Weinberg have amassed an impressive collection of anecdotes in the book. They'll take you through rigged public tenders and encounters with dour-faced communist functionaries to petty office squabbles, so well portrayed in "The Office," and engineering challenges faced by traffic authorities in Switzerland. 

One would struggle to find a common thread running through all these solutions. It's not one of those books peddling a big theory or an exhaustive list of heuristics. Instead, it invites you to approach problems like a multi-faceted puzzle. Sometimes you'll solve them by focusing on technical facts, other times you'll have to navigate the social context or get creative with wording your problems.

Take an example from a company manufacturing toys. A new employee runs cost calculations and comes to a shocking conclusion that the company would save money by closing two out of three factories it runs. He shares his discovery with senior executives but, to his surprise, they thank him for the effort but burry the cost-saving measure. "Why?" asks the bewildered employee, "Don't you want to cut the cost of running a company?"

"The real reason we continue to produce toys in those factories," responds one of the executives, "is not economic, but political." The loss-making factories are located in the cities where the company president and chairman of the board live. And the lesson here is that "in spite of appearances, people seldom know what they want until you give them what they ask for." If you enjoy this kind of practical wisdom, you'll love the book. 

One of the biggest sins of modern publishing is word inflation. How many business books out there should have been articles? A good 80%, if not more. By contrast, "Are your lights on?" is refreshingly concise. At 150 pages, with lots of quirky illustrations, chapters chase one another. It took me barely three hours on a rainy Sunday afternoon to get through the book.

And those three hours were accompanied by a constant chuckle and even occasional guffaws. Messrs Gause and Weinberg have a great sense of humor and aren't afraid to poke fun at pompous men and women inhabiting corner offices of American corporations or presiding over visa formalities in communist Poland. Heck, they even let some characters die in the process of solving problems. George R. R. Martin would have been proud.

The biggest insight of the book, however, lies in the way it frames business problems. Whereas modern business books assume that each problem is worth solving and has a discrete solution, this book takes a very different perspective. To Gause and Weinberg, problems are products of social relations and therefore should be approached with the same pragmatic attitude: some will be worth solving, others - ignoring.

Are Your Lights On? How to Figure Out what the Problem Really is

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