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Every Task Starts Out Wrong
00:00 Every task starts out wrong
00:14 They don’t believe it’s not a ruse
00:51 Double Diamond
01:17 If I had only one hour…
01:39 Do we solve the right problem?
02:09 Even the assignment is never good the first time
---
# Every task starts out wrong
When students come to my first class at university, they have already been in education for sixteen years. In my first class, I assign a term paper. And I immediately tell the students not to worry about not knowing what the assignment is about. Every task assignment is wrong at first. It’s not until halfway through the semester that we figure out together what I actually want them to do.
They look at me like they don’t understand or expect a trick. They don’t believe it’s not a ruse. They usually feel better when I write their grade at the end of the semester. How often have they taken their hard-earned work to the teacher, only to be told he wanted something else? I’m going to draw two rhombs on the board – a double diamond.
This was first drawn in America thirty years ago by Béla H. Banáthy, who was from Hungary but fled to America. He used a picture to explain how to solve problems, and we now call this ‘Design Thinking’.
In the first diamond, we are trying to solve the right issue. Only in the second diamond do we try to solve the problem the right way.
---
«If I had only one hour to solve a problem, I would spend up to two-thirds of that hour attempting to define what the problem is.»
— Albert Einstein
---
Einstein was also an expatriate from the Central Europe. He probably never said that if he had one hour left before the Earth was destroyed, he would spend most of it trying to understand the problem. But he might have.
We are so used to the feeling of success when we get things right. We often forget that we are solving problems that are not right for the situation. But when we create an assignment for someone else, we take shortcuts. We use templates, sample assignments, or frameworks.
After a while, we see that the solution we didn’t want comes back. We can behave like overbearing teachers. We may accuse the solver of misunderstanding. We might also blame them for a lack of judgment. Or…
We have already accepted that a good solution requires working in iterations. Perhaps it would be suitable for us to admit that even the assignment is never good the first time.
But who am I to say…
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit butwhoami.substack.com
View all episodes
By Martin Kopta00:00 Every task starts out wrong
00:14 They don’t believe it’s not a ruse
00:51 Double Diamond
01:17 If I had only one hour…
01:39 Do we solve the right problem?
02:09 Even the assignment is never good the first time
---
# Every task starts out wrong
When students come to my first class at university, they have already been in education for sixteen years. In my first class, I assign a term paper. And I immediately tell the students not to worry about not knowing what the assignment is about. Every task assignment is wrong at first. It’s not until halfway through the semester that we figure out together what I actually want them to do.
They look at me like they don’t understand or expect a trick. They don’t believe it’s not a ruse. They usually feel better when I write their grade at the end of the semester. How often have they taken their hard-earned work to the teacher, only to be told he wanted something else? I’m going to draw two rhombs on the board – a double diamond.
This was first drawn in America thirty years ago by Béla H. Banáthy, who was from Hungary but fled to America. He used a picture to explain how to solve problems, and we now call this ‘Design Thinking’.
In the first diamond, we are trying to solve the right issue. Only in the second diamond do we try to solve the problem the right way.
---
«If I had only one hour to solve a problem, I would spend up to two-thirds of that hour attempting to define what the problem is.»
— Albert Einstein
---
Einstein was also an expatriate from the Central Europe. He probably never said that if he had one hour left before the Earth was destroyed, he would spend most of it trying to understand the problem. But he might have.
We are so used to the feeling of success when we get things right. We often forget that we are solving problems that are not right for the situation. But when we create an assignment for someone else, we take shortcuts. We use templates, sample assignments, or frameworks.
After a while, we see that the solution we didn’t want comes back. We can behave like overbearing teachers. We may accuse the solver of misunderstanding. We might also blame them for a lack of judgment. Or…
We have already accepted that a good solution requires working in iterations. Perhaps it would be suitable for us to admit that even the assignment is never good the first time.
But who am I to say…
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit butwhoami.substack.com