All problems are solvable

2/6/2023 📘 6 min read

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This isn’t a picture of my son’s room, but it might as well be with the number of LEGOs he regularly sprawls out over the floor, bed, desk, dresser, and shelves, making it impossible to navigate the space. I recently asked the 8-year-old to clean his room as it was becoming a safety hazard. He immediately exclaimed it was an impossible task he’d never be able to do. “Why?” I asked. His response summarized a feeling we’ve all had in life.

Haven’t we all felt this way about something in life? Maybe something even in the last year, month, or week?

It is an emotional reaction that prevents us from thinking, and more importantly—doing. The paralysis that comes from overwhelm is real and can lock us into states of complete immobility. In these moments, the problem ahead appears entirely insurmountable.

But, it’s a lie! Here is the hard truth:

As much as I want my son’s room cleaned regularly, I want even more for my son to develop problem-solving skills. I asked him a few questions about how he might solve this impossible problem. He never admitted there was a way—even after he accomplished it! The psychological impression of the mountain ahead leaves deep marks that are only removed with intentional decomposition and faith.

Most of the problems I encounter at work, and in life, I have no idea how to solve. And yet, day after day I move from point A to point B irrefutably. Consider that I began my life unable to walk, talk, or feed myself. And four decades later I not only learned these things, I assumed responsibility for others learning these things.

It is literally impossible for babies to walk when they attempt their first steps. And yet every human that lives without a physical disability achieves this milestone—and many with physical disabilities achieve it as well! How does this happen? How do we achieve the impossible?

There are only two elements needed to achieve the impossible:

1. Belief
2. The next step

We could get deeply philosophical and debate the difference between a “first” step and a “next” step, but allow me to suggest that there is no such thing as a “first” step… you’re already up and running, everything you do is a next step. Thinking about it like this takes away the pressure of “I need to start this big journey” or “I have to begin a massive project”… This is nonsense, you’ve already started and you’ve already begun. The only thing you need to do take the next step, which is quite small.

Taking the next step doesn’t happen naturally, however. Instead, our minds look at the situation and project the possible difficulties ahead. But these are just suggestions from a neutral member of our body (the brain), not authoritative truths of the universe. What makes us divine is our conscious ability to believe beyond the limits that appear around us and within us. We know deep down that we are meant for more, we are meant for greatness. And so, after falling over for months, we ignore our brain’s projections and say—forget this, I’m going to walk! And then we do!

To help my son believe, and consequently take the next step, I asked him to only clean up things that were blue. Within 2-3 minutes he had completed that task. “Now, only clean up things that are red…” A few minutes later he reported that was done. And after we cycled through the colors of the rainbow he’d accomplished the task he exclaimed was literally impossible not 10 minutes before.

When we look to the infinite and impossible future, we don’t comprehend it. But when we look to the next step, we believe we can take it.

Because this is a principle of reality, it applies to software development. Software development is difficult to estimate because it is impossible to see the future accurately. But an inability to accurately see the future has nothing to do with how feasible that future is. The impossible is built every day. Teams that believe all problems are solvable solve impossible problems. They don’t always correctly predict how or when those problems are solved, but they solve them. Where things go sideways is when promises are made too early and risks are assumed to soon. Those betting on success are almost always right about the eventual outcome and usually only wrong about the timing.

Let’s turn to a personal example. In my spare time, I’ve been building a tool to analyze chords in a piece of music. While I have a general vision of where I want the tool to go, each day I only think about the next step. As a result, I get work done and make progress. I don’t fret about how large a mountain I have to climb and I don’t over plan, overanalyze, and overthink.

In less than a month I’ve put together a rough DAW-like environment with the following features:

• chord recognition by bar or beat
• chord recognition of live midi input
• display of chords on a piano roll, piano, and grand staff
• multi-track midi
• rock-solid playback with start, stop, and pause
• timeline “cursor” to position the playhead
• basic product UX

What started as an idea and turned into a technical showcase has now become a personal tool that is actually useful. Before long, it will be a product and I’ll be enhancing it with features I can’t even think of right now. But those are problems of the future and I’m not worried about them, I know they are solvable. All problems are solvable. Just believe and take the next step.