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The Broken Finger Paradox of Engineering
A distraught man walks into his doctor’s office. “What is wrong with you?” She asks.
“Oh, I am miserable,” said the patient as he sat down in the doctor’s exam room.
“Tell me what hurts” the doctor responded.
“Everything!“ he exclaims. The patient gingerly touches his right kneecap. “Ouch!” He then reached up and touches his left elbow with a grimace of pain. Then the tip of his nose, right hip, and finally his left big toe, all the while showing great discomfort.
With a curt nod, the doctor stands up and proclaims, “I see what the problem is!”
The patient looks hopeful.
“We will get you some painkillers right after we put a splint on that sprained finger!”
How much time and suffering do we endure because the focus is on the wrong aspect of a problem or issue?
The proverb tells us that there is more than one way to skin a cat. This is a hard line to argue since finding someone that has skinned a cat is an impossible task. Yet, repeatedly, people will ignore the true meaning behind this statement and only see one pathway to success.
Just like the patient with the broken finger, we are often blinded to looking at things from multiple viewpoints that can not only provide new…
