Thinking is Hard! That’s why I made you these Heuristics…
Summary (tldr)
In this post, I am going to attempt to help you understand how your mind works by discussing heuristics. Recognizing, Understanding, and Creating your personal Heuristics will help you to understand meta you.
- Every day we use Heuristics and they mostly happen unconsciously
- Heuristics can be recognized, named, and identified in a way that makes sense to you to make your life easier. I have made an attempt to articulate ones that I have used further below
- Heuristics belong on the same family tree as Epigrams, Algorithms, Patterns, Cognitive Biases, Models, and even Aphorisms, although they are not the same. I’ve attempted to curate some ones I use below.
- I tried unsuccessfully to find a Taxonomy or Ontology chart to link these all together. I did find this good article which breaks down some of them read more
Definition: Heuristics
Heuristics are mental shortcuts that allow people to solve problems and make judgments quickly and efficiently. These rule-of-thumb strategies shorten decision-making time and allow people to function without constantly stopping to think about their next course of action. They are part of human cognitive behavioral psychology
- When one is faced with too much information
- When the time to make a decision is limited
- When the decision to be made is unimportant
- When there is access to very little information to use in making the decision
- When an appropriate heuristic happens to come to mind in the same moment
Heuristic Example
Imagine yourself walking down the street and then all of a sudden in the footpath in front of you, you see someone lowering a piano from the second floor building above using a rope. You do not pause and contemplate:
- the thickness of the rope
- the weight of the piano
- the strength of the person lowering the piano
Instead, you hurry your fa across the road to avoid the danger. Congratulations! not only have you protected your fa and kept yourself in the gene pool but you have also used a Heuristic to decide what to do next
Thinking is Hard! That’s why so few people do it!
- Politicians
- Religious Leaders
- World Leaders
- Community Leaders
- Mum and Dad, and senior members of the family
- Respected Peers
- Your Boss
- Your Teachers
- The Self Improvement Industrial Complex 😀
Heuristics mean we don’t have to overthink and make our brains waste electricity
The energy that goes into thinking is analogous to the energy used by an athlete that plays a game on Saturday for 80 minutes, at the start they are full of vitality and energy but at the end, they should be exhausted. This same idea can also be applied to thinking the only difference is when where. which is one reason why we use heuristics
Don't block your own escape
Don't make a decision until you have to. That way all future probabilities exist for the longest time
A smart man knows what to say a wise man knows when to say it
Heuristics Examples: Everyday
Words and stuff
Trial and Error (The most fundamental heuristic)
When I make my toast I turn the round toaster knob back and forth until I finally figure out the optimal point between warm bread and burnt toast. It takes me two weeks before I realise how to make the best toast with my new toaster
Note: Trial and Error is the worst way to write code
Hide and seek
I’ve no idea where it’s i hiding I’m just looking anywhere and everywhere until I find it
It will be in the last place that I look (of course it will dumbass otherwise it wouldn’t be the last place)
Process of Elimination
I don’t really know wtf I’m doing, but I know that if I keep eliminating 1 thing or 1 group of things sooner or later I will resolve the issue
Educated Guess / Guesstimate
I use my experience to determine how to respond.
Stereotyping
Profiling
Heuristics Examples: Technology
Words and stuff
What problem are you trying to solve?
It sounds obvious but so many times in my career I have seen we lose sight of the problem and spend too much time spinning wheels on the wrong thing. e.g. We spend 1 hour trying to fix an App when the problem is with the Firewall. Ask yourself what is the Problem, Benefit, and Solution:
- What’s the benefit for the client?
- What difficulty are you resolving for them?
- What are you making easier?
- What are you enhancing?
Change and Repeat
Make a change then REPEAT the test
What was the Last Known Good
- When did it last work
- When did the problem start
- What has changed since it last worked
- Is anyone else having the same problem
- Does it work on another computer
- Can you logon to another computer and try it
- What’s the impact
Uninstall reinstall
If your app stops working then it’s often easily fixed by an uninstall and then a fresh install
Fog First
Your solution should be cloud-based to ensure you have less risk and less work to do, and it should be cheaper (so cloud people claim lol)
Zombie Bug
- I thought I killed that bitch but it’s back again!
- Always double check
I’m talking about computer bugs not your ex <shakes head>
Delete and Recreate the broken thing
Root cause (Root cause fix vs JIT just in time fix e.g. Recreating User Profile vs making a single change in HKCU)
9/10 Rule
Reboot fixes 9 out of 10 problems
No explanation required here!
Water in the Waka Rule
If your feet start feeling wet, start bailing out or pushing people overboard, or paddling to shore
Baseline Bearch!
You need to understand the Techie Thingy, and the only way to do that is take it out for a drink FIRST
(Normal Behavior / Understanding Behavior)
Consider Time
OSI Up Rule
Check the OSI layers in order starting from the bottom! e.g. WLAN connected and authenticated / NIC Link Led on?
1. Do you have a bound IP address (or an apipa)
2. Ping IP (gateway, target, apipa?)
3. Ping (hostname / nslookup / tracert)
4. Hardware Issue Software Issue – OS / Application User Profile Issue Local Computer Issue (Other computers affected) HKLM HKCU Logon as another user and repeat test Logon as user to another computer & repeat the test User problem (layer 8)
Unexplained root cause
Sometimes when fixing tech issues you don’t really know the root cause. You have fixed the problem but you don’t know beyond doubt why. It may take an hour to fix a problem but take 3 hours to figure out why.
Sometimes it’s a waste of good energy to discover why. Better just to let it go
Educated guess
So many times in my career I’ve come across a problem that I recognize but forgotten how to fix. I know I will fix the problem just by running through diagnostic patterns and routines I’ve used before
A lot of effort for little reward
Can you please fix my mouse? FO just buy a new one
Over engineering
If it wasn’t for Over Engineering half the I.T sector would be wiped away
Insufficient data
You do the work not me
Run Script again
101 Binary Rule
Fire the firewall
SledgeHammer Nut
You fixed the Printer but you had to reinstall the OS to do it
Sesame Street 🥇
- Spot the Difference Approach (one of these things is not like the other ):
- Sometimes when you are stuck it’s useful to compare the thing that works with the thing that doesn’t work
Is it Elegant 
Make sure your solution is Elegant (pleasingly ingenious and simple)
Don’t make a problem someone else has to solve
Think about your work and how it impacts people now and in the future
If the problem is intermittent then it is 10x harder to fix
We are 1 Google search away from a list of things
Yet still people won’t use it lol
Read the screen
- So often the answer we speak is written in the error message on the screen right in front of us
- Search for the truth Read and research anything on the topic you
SledgeHammer Nut
You fixed the Printer but you had to reinstall the OS to do it <facepalm>
Blind men touching an elephant
Everyone sees the problem and solution differently
End User – Thinks the ear is large leaf
Operations Manager – Thinks the Tail is a rope
Project Manager – Thinks the leg is a Tree
Technology Architect – Thinks the trunk is a bbc
Technology Engineer
Business Analyst – Doesn’t think (just kidding BA’s )
Always another Slave Rule
Keep throwing resources until it’s built
Whirlpool Effect
If you see 2 techies discussing a problem…walk away! Watch you don’t get sucked in!
Iceberg Ahead
See that iceberg? Forget your wife and kids get your fa into that lifeboat as soon as you can.
Support Adversarial collaboration
Trends are always about the past
Sisyphus effect
Weaponized chocolate cake Paradox
Heuristics in Life
Words and stuff
Avoid the streetlight effect
I lost my keys in the dark and I’m looking under the streetlight because that’s where I can see <facepalm>
Carmen medina Cynefin
- Know your thinking style. Gregoric
- Casualty and patterns
- Mental Shortcuts
- Diagnostic data
- It’s more difficult to wrap your mind around and not as all more intuitive
- Everyday Decisions
- Fast Unconcious or Intuitive Automatic Error Prone
- Complex Decisions Slow Conscious Effortful (More) Reliable
Heuristics in Consumerism
Words and stuff
If it’s on special buy two!
1x Peanut slab = $1.20 3x Peanut slab = $3
Most Homeopathy is snake oil
Who cares we buy because we believe
If it has a known label it must be good!
IDGAF if it’s made in the same sweatshop, with the same fabric, and same seamsters as something half the price. I only GAF about impressing my Neighbour cause of the label
Reference Links
- I may have referenced these links directly in this blog or searched and found something that supported my claim
https://paleofoundation.com/heuristics-decision-friction/
