Problems. They are a bit of a problem aren’t they? You’re happily going about your life, when *pang* a problem occurs. In fact, can you think of anything that has ever happened in which there wasn’t even just a little problem? No, neither can I. In fact, life is just the act of solving problems. But no worries. We are seasoned problem solvers, with years of experience in panicking then doing a botch job…
But think back to the last problem you had to solve. Do you think you were the first person in human historty to have to solve that problem? What about the one before that? And before that? Of course not. 99% of the problems, bugs and blips that we encounter in daily life have been encountered thousand, millions or billions of times before. So what do we do? That’s right – we still try and solve it from first principles.
Well over 100 billion people have lived on this planet, and all of them will have spent their lives encountering problems, and usually coming up with solutions. That is a vast wealth of experience, and an immense bank of trial-and-error. Yet we often choose to shun it in favour of learning from scratch. And this in a world where Google can provide in milliseconds a litany of other peoples trials-and-tribulations, gilt-edged solutions, and fluorescent-backed warnings. A world where Twitter can extract the opinions of millions of people you’ve never met. A world where people feel the need to blog about everything they try and do 
You are not the first person to try and quit smoking. You are not the first person to feel depressed. You are not the first person to try and get Flash to work on an iPhone. You are not the first person to try and implement GTD on your Blackberry. You are not the first person to have a poorly baby. You are not the first person to have a constipated dog. You are not the first person to wonder who to vote for. You are not the first person to get piles. You are not the first person to be scared to ask someone on a date. And you are certainly not the first person who think they are the first person to feel any of the above and more.
But you CAN change! From now on, for every challenge you face, ask yourself “I wonder how the last person solved this?”. Then go an find out.
