Success Cybernetics (Unabridged edition) by Uell S. Andersen

Author:Uell S. Andersen [Andersen, Uell S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: nonfiction
Publisher: UELL S. ANDERSEN
Published: 2022-02-22T23:00:00+00:00

HOW TO PUT UP WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE GENIUSES

I addressed the Management Club of North American Aviation. The president of General Information Systems, a North American subsidiary, was also on the program. When I listened to his address, I changed mine. He cursorily remarked on eight major problems his engineers had solved that very afternoon. I looked into my bag of creative tricks and decided I was a piker. I changed the title of my talk to How to Put Up with People Who are Geniuses. It got a big laugh, and afterward I asked him what was the main characteristic he looked for in a creative engineer. “Imagination,” he said. I asked him to give me an example. He said, “We want somebody who thinks it’s possible to walk to the moon.” I gathered he was out to make the impossible possible. That’s why North American rockets ahead.

There’s only one way I know of to get rid of a problem, and that’s to solve it. Of course, you can pretend it isn’t there. That helps in a surprising number of cases, since many problems don’t exist outside the mind. I once considered going into business manufacturing a problem solver for that kind of problem. You could say that it’s design was the ultimate in simplicity. It consisted of a box about the size that holds cigars, and when you opened the lid, inside there was nothing. That’s where you put your problems. You wrote each on a slip of paper, deposited it in the box, closed the lid, and the problem solver went to work.

The beauty of this little machine was that you didn’t even have to press a button, just close the lid. At the end of a week, you opened the lid and went through the problems. Those that the problem solver had already solved, you tore up and threw away. If you had any new ones, you deposited them inside. Each week you opened up the problem solver and got rid of the problems it had already solved. The machine was a whiz. It solved ninety percent of people’s problems. I was all set to launch a nationwide business when I ran into a snag. I couldn’t get a patent. The design was too simple.

There was a supervisor who was having trouble out in the shop. It was just one thing after another. This wouldn’t fit, that would break down, this was too low, that was too high. People spent all their time looking puzzled. I asked him what was the first thing he said when he heard there was trouble. He said that he asked, “What’s the problem?” I suggested that he change the direction of his question. After that he began asking, “What’s the solution?” Pretty soon, there was no more trouble out in the shop. Things still wouldn’t fit, would still break down, this was too low, and that was too high. But they were fixed at once, and he never heard about it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.