Carlo Romero – Page 7 – Carlo G. Romero

How to Solve Any Problem, Step 2: Identify and Clarify

And, now, we’re back to problem solving…

The NASA spaceship Odyssey was 205,000 miles away from earth when astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert heard what they described as a “pretty large bang”. This was accompanied by electrical fluctuations onboard and the momentary loss of communication with Earth. Their second oxygen tank reading was zero. When they looked out the window, they saw that the Odyssey was venting gas. Clearly, they had a problem—but what? They didn’t even know if what they heard was an explosion or the impact of a meteorite. And if it were an explosion, what caused it and which parts of the Odyssey did it affect? The specific answers to all these questions marked the difference between the success and failure of the mission, with “success” meaning that Lovell and Haise would land on the moon in the Aquarius and then plant the flag.

In the latter parts of the math section of the SAT the questions get harder. The questions have fifty words or so and the student has less than fifty seconds to read it and solve it. If they get past their intimidation—which they often do—as they read the question they will recognize many elements, realize that they know all the necessary math, start executing the steps they know and then get an answer.

Only later on do they find out they got wrong answer because they solved the wrong problem. They hadn’t read all the way to the end of the question so they didn’t actually know what the real problem was. Or they simply misunderstood the question because the excitement of recognition drew them away from complete understanding and, therefore, the correct solution.

After the accident on the Odyssey, it wasn’t immediately obvious that the astronauts’ survival was at stake. After all, they were still breathing and they were still moving towards their original target—the moon. Only after an examination of the all the monitors on the Odyssey and a long series of physics calculations run by the NASA engineers on earth did the gravity of the situation become clear. Only then did they understand the true nature of the problem. Not only were Lovell and Haise not going to be able to take the Lunar Module and land on the moon, it wasn’t even clear that they were necessarily going to survive. The problem to be solved wasn’t a lunar landing. It was whether they were going to live and land back on earth. Their supply of breathable oxygen was now severely limited and they were hurtling away at thousands of miles per hour from the nearest known source of oxygen in the universe—talk about time pressure!

You know how this movie ends, of course. Lovell, Haise and Swigert returned home, their mission hailed as a “successful failure.” The movie Apollo 13 was largely accurate, down to the lines in the script taken directly from actual NASA communication transcripts (a bit of trivia: unlike Tom Hanks in the movie, what Jim Lovell actually said was, “Houston, we’ve had a problem”, not, “Houston, we have a problem”. Impress someone with that at your next party). But for all the excitement in the movie of solving the problem, most of the movie was really spent trying to understand the problem in the first place. Most of the movie was spent problem identifying instead of problem solving: identifying the real problem (survival) and clarifying the problem (the constraints imposed by a limited supply of oxygen and Newton’s Laws of Motion).

So this is step two of solving any problem, what my students have to do in less than fifty seconds.

How to Solve Any Problem

Step 1: Get your mind right

Step 2: Identify and clarify the problem

How to Handle Fear

Imagine having the ability to dispatch forty armed assailants with your bare hands. Or the agility to dodge heavy machine gun fire unscathed. Or the strength and speed to take on interstellar opponents. Of course, our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man can do these things because he has the proportionate strength and speed of a spider.

But the foundation of all of his amazing ability is his “spidey sense”, his extra sensory perception that warns him of all forms of danger. When his spidey sense “tingles”, he knows he’s about to be punched, or that an energy burst from a blaster is coming, or someone is about to drop a bucket of paint on his head. And since he knows what’s about to happen, he can handle it appropriately: punch back, get out of the way or simply do nothing.

Wouldn’t you love it if you had a spidey sense? I would! If you could just peer a little bit into the future to see what harm may befall you, imagine how prepared and ready you would be to handle what life has to throw at you.

Actually, you already have this superpower. Mother Nature is no fool. We call this superpower “fear” and it does for us what Spidey’s sense does for him. Fear warns us of danger. Fear tells us when to fight, when to flee and when to stand our ground and do nothing at all.

It is possible to be truly fearless, i.e., feel no fear at all, but this is a very bad state to be in. To be truly fearless, you would have to be cut off from your amygdala—essentially the reptilian part of your brain. There are such people running around, who by genetic circumstance or brain injury cannot feel fear at all. They tend to walk right into the middle traffic. When a punch is thrown, they don’t know why they should get out of the way. In the face of a predator, they feel no need to run. Without outside protection, they are not likely to make it into the next round of life.
You need the gift of fear. Evolution gave it to you for a reason. Evolution wants you alive and ready to procreate.

The problem is not fear but an excessive attachment to it. This is what happens to my students when they see a problem they don’t understand. Their anxiety goes through the roof and understandably so. They’ve been told over and over that their future is on the line. And it is.

So what to do with the gift of fear at that exact moment? When the amygdala starts blaring, all mental processing is taken away from the neocortex—the part that’s brilliant at math—and drawn to their reptilian brain—the part that knows about—among other things—digestion. How to get the focus back on their brilliant neocortex?

You can try to ignore the fear, but that won’t work since any ignored emotion will simply return more intensified. You can challenge the fear but—like ignoring it—it will simply make it stronger. Why not do what Spidey does when his spider sense tingles? He pays attention to it. Then he decides what to do, whether it be fight or flee. Note that he does not do what his spider sense tells him to do. He listens to it, evaluates its warning then he decides and acts.

Fear is not designed to tell you what to do. It tells you that there’s a threat and you might need to do something, but the decision is left entirely up to you. But how can you make a good decision when your fear is at its most intense and you amygdala is demanding all of your attention?

You can breathe. Deeply, evenly and consciously.

This sounds simple but the decision to breathe deeply and consciously actually sets off a complex series of neurological events. This decision to focus wrests control of your brain from your primitive amygdala to your far more intelligent and advanced neocortex.

You don’t need to take my word for it. Take it from the experts in fear management: the United States Military. This is the breathing technique the US Navy teaches to prepare for extreme situations (“extreme” meaning the probability of a life terminating event is high, aka death): Combat Tactical Breathing

Relax yourself by taking 3 to 5 breaths as described below. Visualize each number as you count.
Breathe in counting 1, 2, 3, 4
Stop and hold your breath counting 1, 2, 3, 4
Exhale counting 1, 2, 3, 4
Repeat the breathing
Breath in counting 1, 2, 3, 4
Pause and hold your breathe counting 1, 2, 3, 4
Exhale counting 1, 2, 3, 4

Navy SEALs use it. First responders use it. Professional athletes use it.

Try it. I will! I will teach it to my kids. Let me know how it goes. Maybe instead of fear being a master, we can turn fear into a very good and wise friend.

How to Get Your Mind Right

I used to have a personal trainer who would always shout before a lift, “Get your mind right!” I am no longer with him. He annoyed me. First of all, he never explained what it meant to get my mind “right”. Second, he shouted. Neither situation is optimal for muscle growth—or problem solving.

Now, of course, having spent enough time teaching math to teenagers I understand how important it is to get your mind right. If they are going to learn anything and succeed well enough on the SAT to go to the college of their choice, they are going to need to know how to get themselves in the most optimal mindset for examination success.

“Getting your mind right” is context specific. The mental state necessary to lift a heavy weight is not quite the same as the mindset for solving an algebra problem. But whatever the optimal mindset is for the domain of the challenge, it is important to be able to quickly get yourself into that state.

None of my students has ever lacked for cognitive ability. But when they encounter a problem with more than ten words that is accompanied by an unfamiliar picture, they collapse in discomfort. Instead of being able to marshall all the processing power of the one hundred trillion neurons they possess, their anxiety starts telling them lies like “I’m just stupid”, “I’m not good at math” or “this is impossible”. None of this has ever been true. But once in a panic, any of us can be convinced of any untruth—even if the liar is our own brain.

My erstwhile trainer was actually right about one thing. When he shouted “get your mind right” he probably meant concentrate and focus. Indeed, the correct mindset to solving any problem—or lifting any weight, for that matter—starts with focus. All other considerations must be put aside to focus on the challenge at hand. Only then can the awesome power of those trillions of neurons can be brought to bear.

In order to learn and solve problems I need my students to be focused, creative and open. This is the optimal problem solving mindset. But without the first, the last two are largely irrelevant to problem solving.

So how do I get my students to learn how to focus? The opposite of focus is distraction. What distracts them when faced with a problem? Their cell phone? The ambient noise? Background chatter?

My students are distracted from focus by exactly the same things that distract us all: our own thoughts and feelings. And the most powerful and, therefore, distracting thoughts and feelings are the ones associated with anxiety and fear.

So getting my students to get their minds right is simply a question of teaching them how to handle their distracting thoughts and feelings, which means helping them learn how to handle their anxieties and fears at the precise moment these anxieties and fears are at their maximum—like in the middle of a four exam that will determine the course of the rest of their lives.

Simple, right?

I’ll show them how to do this—right after I learn how to do it for myself.

That said, I do have an idea how to do this. It’s not original and I certainly did not come up with this on my own but I’ll gladly share what little I know about this—next week. Here’s a hint: one of the foremost experts in this is in the neighborhood and is very friendly.

How to Solve Any Problem

Today would have been my mother’s birthday so instead of thinking about what I can give her, I will ponder and expand on one of the gifts she gave me. Like my mother—and her father before her—I became a teacher. My grandfather taught civil engineering. My mother taught the law and english. I’ve taught software engineering, martial arts and salsa dancing. Today I teach SAT math to teenagers.

Those are all very different domains. One domain involves erecting structurally sound edifices. Another is about erecting a sound legal defense. Yet another is about figuring out how to knock out your opponent before he knocks you out. But whether it is math, or writing, rhythm or fighting, success in all these domains requires one ability above all else: the ability to solve problems in real time and at a faster rate than the problems arrive.

The question I am considering is this: is there a common way to solve problems across all domains? This is on my mind as I try to teach teenaged students how to do algebra under time pressure. I know that any human being can learn to do anything given a good enough reason. What is the reason I can give my skeptical students for engaging in the struggle for finding the value of x? That it will help them get into a good college and, therefore, get a good job? Those are good reasons, but that motivation is hard to sustain in the face of the allure of texting their friends and liking a post on social media. Could there be a more compelling reason to learn algebra?

Algebra is math. Math is really nothing but a language governed by a precise and limited set of rules. In other words, it’s a system of logic. Solving a problem in math is nothing but an exercise in solving a problem of logic. And solving a problem of logic is nothing but problem solving. In other words, the steps you would need to take to solve a math problem on the SAT are not fundamentally different from the steps you would need in order to construct a bridge, defend a client from a lawsuit or lead a partner through a complex combination while keeping in time with Tito Puente.

Maybe you disagree. A sound rejoinder to all this is to point out the dearth of mathematicians competing on Dancing with the Stars. A fair point, but bear with me. I think I’ll have you convinced as I pursue my not unambitious goal of developing the universal steps for solving any problem in the universe. Or barring your full agreement, at least you will be entertained. This will be fun for both of us.

So, without further ado, let’s get to the first step. It’s an ironic first step given how much I’ve talked about logic. In the years I’ve taught children how to solve math problems I’ve yet to encounter one who wasn’t fundamentally smart enough to solve even the most complex problems. Cognitive ability has never been the issue. More often than not, however, the young student will see all the words in the problem and immediately conclude that they simply cannot solve the problem or that there is no solution possible. In the face of unfamiliar difficulty, the student simply collapses and surrenders.

Given that, the first step to solving any problem is not a step of logic but one of emotion. Step 1 of solving any problem in the known universe is to get your mind right. You need to believe that there is a solution to the problem you are facing and that you can find it. Without this first step, all the other steps are irrelevant. This is not so much a statement of confidence as it is a statement of faith. The students who hang on to this faith are the ones who wrestle with the problem until they find the solution.

So whatever problem you face, you need to believe that there is a solution and that you can find it.

How to Solve Any Problem

Step 1: Get your mind right

Homeless Interview #23: Maybe I’ll Be Somebody Someday

I had been wondering where Steve was. I hadn’t seen him for a month. I see many of the homeless people again and again in the same spots at the same spots but Steve and his art were nowhere to be found. I was happy to see him this morning on my walk to work, surrounded again by this art, his pens and his other implements.

Human beings have a natural contempt for those we deem to be “free riders”: taking more while giving nothing in return. Scientists even has a term for this tendency: altruistic punishment. We feel contempt towards anyone who violates the social norms of reciprocity by taking without giving.

It’s easy to see why many people sneer when they see Steve and other human beings like him. It’s natural. We assume he’s taking from us while we toil away at our jobs, while he gives nothing. Before I met him, I thought the same.

Steve’s art is the most important thing in the world to him. He works on his art constantly because, as he said, “Maybe I’ll be somebody someday.” He hopes his talent will be discovered. I gently reminded him, “You’re already somebody.”

Steve has no roof over his head, no paid work, no possessions save those within five feet of him. All he has to give to the world is his art–which is everything to him. That’s all he has to offer the world: everything.

Homeless Interview #22: 1% Smile

It was raining on Friday so I didn’t expect to see any homeless people on the streets, but there she was on the north east corner of 42nd and Fifth, wrapped up in her poncho, smiling at everyone who passed by, whether they looked at her or not. I had met Laura the week before but I couldn’t stay long enough to listen to her story. I’m glad I found her again.

Laura said she was 26, about to turn 27, but with her baby face and open smile, I would have thought that she was even younger. She’s from the area but had been living and working in Los Angeles when her father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, one of the its most severe forms.

According to a recent study and as reported by CNBC, most personal bankruptcies in the United States are due to medical bills. Although some of the numbers are in dispute, there is no doubt that skyrocketing medical costs are sending more and more people into poverty. I was staring at the evidence in the face.

Laura has a college degree. She even has a graduate scholarship that she had to hold off in order to go home to take care of her father. Her father had no insurance so in order to pay for his care they had to mortgage their house. He passed away last year and the bank foreclosed on their house. On her way back to the airport to return to LA after her father passed, she was mugged, losing the last few dollars she had. Adding insult to injury, her Social Security card had been in her wallet and she has become the victim of identity fraud. She’s been staying in a shelter for women in New Jersey for the better part of a year. She’s the youngest woman in the shelter by 25 years, she said.

For most of the time I’d talked to her she had a pleasant smile and she tried to smile and look at each person who passed her in the eye. She betrayed no self-pity, only displaying hope and optimism. In the time I sat with her several people stopped to give her money and food and they rewarded her with something she found far more precious: a smile in return.

It’s when I asked her what she would want people to know about her that she revealed some of what she was truly feeling. “I want them to know we’re not all fakers,” she said. “We’re not all junkies. Some of us have had bad luck.” Her eyes finally started to well up. “Do you know how many people smile back at me? One percent. Fifty percent sneer at me, look down at me. A few help me. The rest just ignore me. It hurts. We’re people, too.”

Homeless Interview #21: Ada in Grand Central

She was in a corner of Grand Central station, right beneath the Apple Store, hidden away in plain sight, packing her things into two shopping carts as commuters made their way to their trains around her. She said her name was “Ada” and that she was from Cuba and that she didn’t want her photo taken. She’s one of the dozens of homeless people who choose to stay in Grand Central instead of going to shelters.

She’s been in New York for four years and had been in the United States for over thirty. When I asked her what brought her to New York, she talked about a claim she’d made against the government, about boxes with her papers burned, about her property forcibly taken away by dark forces, about appealing to Kofi Annan at the UN.

Her incoherence and talk of conspiracies led me to believe that she was a paranoid schizophrenic. In other words, she seemed to be one of the 25% of homeless people that were severely mentally ill. I’m not a professional, of course, so my “diagnosis” can’t be taken seriously. But I do know this: Ada does not belong in the streets–or in Grand Central.

Homeless Interview #20 : A Kiss for the Reviled

I saw her from across Fifth Avenue, from behind. She was sitting on the southwest corner of 52nd and 5th. As I approached her, I started to see something very wrong: there was an enormous tumor on the right side of her face. Her sign declared that she had cancer and she was trying to collect money to save her life.

I have a standard list of questions to get these conversations started. What is your name? Where are you from? How long have you been out here? What would you like people to know about you? I did get her name, “Amy”, and she did say she was “hanging in there” but as I was sitting there with her, I was stopped in my tracks, stunned to be in the presence of someone in the direst of needs.

While I was sitting there, a man on a bicycle stopped in front of Amy. He took out two fresh $20 bills and gave it to her. He knew her because he had spoken to her before, but she didn’t remember him. With uncommon warmth he hugged her and kissed her on the cheek as if she were a precious child.

Again, I was stunned, because I had never seen anyone do that before: kiss someone the rest of us revile. He said his name was “John”. I asked him why he stopped to help when no one else would even come close to her. “Because it’s to the poor we owe everything!” he thundered. I bore the full brunt of his passion. “The poor are here to teach us how to love!” Over and over he hammered these themes. The passersby barely noticed.

Whether or not you believe Jesus Christ is a deity, he was clearly a historical figure, flesh and blood, living in Jerusalem at the height of the power of the Roman Empire. The record does say that he preached love for the miserable and the downtrodden, the sick and the dying. He wrote no words down, himself, and yet we remember him two thousand years after his time on earth. What would it have been like to meet him? As John thundered away with his wild passion, exhorting us to love the poor, I had to wonder if meeting Jesus Christ would have been a similar experience. In the picture I took it may not be obvious where Amy’s tumor is but here’s how to find it: it is right where John is kissing her.

I asked Amy what I always ask: what would she want people to know about her? “I wish people wouldn’t judge me,” she said. “What people do is cruel. “They treat me like I’m a disease. They move as far away as possible when they walk on the sidewalk.”

John added that no matter why people are out on the street, whether it’s because of drugs or because they are sick, they are more compassionate than those who aren’t on the street. I can’t say if that’s true or not, of course, but I have seen a remarkable connection amongst the homeless people I’ve met. As I’ve noted in past posts, they look out for each other. I understand now something that baffled me before. More than once I’ve seen a homeless person accept food they don’t necessarily like or want and then store it in their bags. I assumed it was just to save it for future use just in case they became severely hungry. Amy explained the real reason because it’s something she does. She keeps the food she doesn’t need just in case another homeless person needs it. She wants to have something to give.

Before John left, he gave Amy another warm hug. Moved by her story, I came over to her and I hugged her, as well. I was privileged that she let me.

Homeless Interview #19: Lucky

I noticed her sitting on the ground and leaning against the wall of a building on 53rd street because a large police officer (or security guard) was talking to her. I thought he was going to shoo her away, as was the policy of the NYPD in previous administrations policy of the NYPD in previous administrations. Instead, he was just checking on her, trying to see if she was okay. She was an older woman, probably in her fifties, her hair gray and frazzled.

She said her name was “Karen”. I asked her if I could sit down next to her and she said it was fine. I saw her eying the bottles of Gatorade in my bag and I offered her one. It was the only thing she wanted from me–besides the conversation.

She’d been out on the street since January because of problems she’d had with the shelter system. I asked her brought her out into the streets and she said that she was an incest survivor and that she had been battling dark, nefarious forces–and lost.

Before I even asked she said, “No pictures!” but she offered a picture of her one friend, the stuffed Leprechaun she named “Lucky”. She had lost her cocker spaniel last year, she said, so she got Lucky as a consolation.

What would she want people to know about her, I asked? She answered, “You need to watch the shelters. People are being abused. People need to be housed.”

Homeless Interview #18: Bill Has Hope

I’m so used to seeing Bill every day as I walk down Lexington Avenue that when I don’t, I worry about him. It’s been unusually cold in New York, lately, and I hadn’t see him for a while, so when I did, I caught up with him, checking to see if he was all right.

He was in a good mood. He had just arrived at his usual spot in front of Equinox. He’s working with a counselor with one of the municipal agencies and he had just met with her. She’s helping him navigate the bureaucracy of services, getting his paperwork in order, so that he can get job. “I have hope,” he said, explaining to me how close he was to being able to get a job, leave the shelter and get his own place. Imagining his future brought that smile to his face.

Since I’ve started this series I’ve been asked more than once why “these people” don’t just get a job. It’s a question I used to ask, myself. Now I know that the answer is because it’s very hard. I also now know that they’re all trying very hard to escape.

Bill’s efforts seem to finally be paying off. His optimism left me hopeful. Maybe, just maybe, there will be a time when I won’t see him in front of Equinox anymore. He’ll just be gone. And I’ll be happy for him.