Here’s a made-up story I usually tell in our How to Have Ideas workshops at Constructivist. It is a story from the distant past when humans lived without phones in their pockets…
Imagine you and a friend agree to meet for a walk in the hills. You agree to meet at the bench on the top of the hill nearest the carpark. It’s easy to see from the carpark, and it is a nice spot to sit and wait for each other.
But when you arrive, you find a thick fog has descended upon the valley. You have no idea which way the hill is. So you start walking and notice that you are going uphill. Feeling encouraged, you carry on finding your way through the fog by following the line of steepest slope. Eventually, this method brings you to the top of the hill, where you see the bench and sit down.
The fog begins to clear.
Gradually you begin to see that on the other side of the carpark there is another hill, with another bench on it, and there is your friend waving back at you.
Ok, it’s quite a crude story, but it serves as a lesson in constant optimisation. Sometimes, following the line of steepest slope – making what seems like the optimal decision at every step – only gets us to the top of the nearest hill. But to reach the top of the tallest hill we might need to stumble around in different directions in the fog before the best way forwards becomes clear.