maladroit4u

The Painter and the Big Picture

2013-09-30

One day a man walked to the bus stop and stood waiting for the next bus. He noticed a painter to his left. The painter had his easel set up next to a newspaper stand and was working furiously on a painting of the intersection. The painting was intricate, with delicate lines. It was a beautiful vision of the intersection.

As the man was watching the painter, he saw him become frustrated. The painter was trying to darken the shaded area of the traffic light pole in his painting. However, each time he would go at it, his brush appeared to stray to the side and create a wayward line.

After the third try, the man watching painter realized what was happening. The worker in the newspaper stand was opening the door to the booth and walking out to help a customer. Each time the door opened, it would barely nudge the far leg of the painter's easel. It just so happened that the newspaper salesman had been in and out of his booth each time the painter went for the pole.

In disgust, the painter stands up and grumbles, "Stupid brush," as he tosses it in a nearby trash can. He goes to his bag and retrieves a different brush.

The man waiting for the bus walks over to the painter and asks, "Why did you throw that brush away?"

"It was worthless!" the painter exclaims. "I couldn't convince it to paint a straight line. It was time for a new one, anyway." He frowns at his second brush, looking unhopeful at its ability to better its predecessor.

"But it wasn't your brush. It was the news stand's door hitting your easel," says the man. They both look over in time to see the salesman open the door and the easel to rock slightly.

- - -

There are two actions that can make your life much easier and more fulfilling: keeping an eye on the big picture and keeping an ear open to the thoughts of those around you. Nearly every tough problem I have encountered was solved by one or both of these actions.

It's easy to examine an intricate problem so that you get too close to see tangential things affecting it. When you lose your view of a large system, you can easily start to discount observations important to solving your problem. Always broaden your thoughts until you reach parts of the system that have very low input to your problem domain.

One thing that can easily keep the big picture in your mind is listening to what other people think about the problem. First, this will remind you of how the entire system works. You'll spend time merging their thoughts with yours and working through discrepencies caused by how they perceive the system differently. Second, and most importantly, an outside spectator can often see a simple solution to your problem that your may have overlooked or ignored. Not every problem you become absorbed in is actually difficult. It may be easily solved, but you just missed the solution.

Keep a bird's eye view of the problem domain in your mind and don't let pride keep you from listening to a helpful friend.