Comment by at_a_remove

"For every problem there is a solution that is simple, neat — and wrong."

I start with the basic assumption that the person I am talking to has spent more time thinking about the problem than I have, which is a good one because I have just walked in. Therefore, if they did not do the Thing Which Is Obvious To Me, there must be a reason for it. I try to work out what that is and volunteer that as "I'm guessing $reason played a factor?"

Once you begin treating a person as someone you have something to learn something from, everything changes. It has been difficult to do this at times but it pays off so frequently I have little reason to recommend against it. If I have to ask someone on a help line for something, I will briefly explain myself and ask, "If you were me, what would you do?" I watch in amazement as someone who has been used as a speech-recognition front-end for a flowchart brings expertise, insight, and judgment to the situation.

The reason I do this is because I have been asked "why didn't you just ..." so often by people who are looking for the simple solution every time and exist in this constant welter of disappointment that the world might be slightly more complex than plugging things together tend to look at you in this resentful, exasperated manner as if you, personally, are withholding the Easy Way Out. I just do not want to do that to other people, having been on the receiving end of it myself so often.

You will run into people who have overlooked the obvious but that will be much rarer than you would imagine.