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Problem-solving
Apr. 16th, 2013 11:30 amYesterday I got a call pointing out a problem with one of our online reports. I looked at the SQL behind the report, and after about a half an hour I was able to see what was causing the problem. However, I had no idea how to fix it. I thought about it off and on last night (more off than on) and on the walk to work this morning, but my mind was basically going around in circles. This morning I discussed the problem with a co-worker, and we got into a frustrating box where we seemed to be talking past each other about the nature of the dataset. Then I started looking at something else completely unrelated (some news about the Boston bombing), and suddenly I thought of a new approach to the problematic SQL.
The idea seemed to come out of nowhere, but it worked when I implemented it. Even after I saw that it apparently worked, I still didn't understand *why* it worked. I discussed it with my co-worker, but we were still not on the same page. I tested the report to see if I could find any problems in the data, but everything seemed to be just fine. I went off to get some more coffee, and as I was wandering around with my coffee I suddenly realized that my solution had to do with the primary key of one of the tables involved in the query. I had been thinking about aspects of the primary key earlier, before I came up with my solution, but it hadn't been in my thoughts at all at the moment that the solution arrived to me.
The point of all this is that it seems to me that the problem-solving was happening on some level other than my conscious thinking. I have no idea where it was happening, and I suppose that's one of the reasons I get such a charge out of the process. It's often a mystery to me how I do it, and therefore it seems miraculous on some level -- a gift from the gods. Where do our ideas come from? It doesn't always seem to be a rational process, or if it *is* rational it's a deep, invisible rationality. Deep logic? It's very strange.
The idea seemed to come out of nowhere, but it worked when I implemented it. Even after I saw that it apparently worked, I still didn't understand *why* it worked. I discussed it with my co-worker, but we were still not on the same page. I tested the report to see if I could find any problems in the data, but everything seemed to be just fine. I went off to get some more coffee, and as I was wandering around with my coffee I suddenly realized that my solution had to do with the primary key of one of the tables involved in the query. I had been thinking about aspects of the primary key earlier, before I came up with my solution, but it hadn't been in my thoughts at all at the moment that the solution arrived to me.
The point of all this is that it seems to me that the problem-solving was happening on some level other than my conscious thinking. I have no idea where it was happening, and I suppose that's one of the reasons I get such a charge out of the process. It's often a mystery to me how I do it, and therefore it seems miraculous on some level -- a gift from the gods. Where do our ideas come from? It doesn't always seem to be a rational process, or if it *is* rational it's a deep, invisible rationality. Deep logic? It's very strange.
