When I think back to how I acted when I was younger some things make me cringe. I was thinking about one thing in particular that, having really understood it, changed my outlook on a lot of things.

Over the first 20 years or so of working in various industries and roles, I learned something I have attempted to condense into an aphorism with varying degrees of success, here’s version (some largish number).0:

The solution to almost every problem other people are failing to solve is obvious and the people trying to solve it are inexplicably ignorant.

I learned that almost without fail, I was the ignorant one and my “trivial solution” only made sense if I ignored the facts. Once I would engage in trying to solve the problem I would quickly see that my ”solution” was not only obvious but useless.

Now of course there are incompetent people who really are overlooking the obvious, but I found, in the context of people who were professionally engaged in solving the problem in question that was far more of an exception than the rule. I did much better in many ways assuming I was not fully informed on the nature of, or constraints of, the problem space. It made me stop and consider what might be making the problem hard to solve.

I also found that I was extremely successful in ”last mile” problem solving. I made a lot of money, and my reputation, on being able to make things work that others had been unable to even after a long time of trying. But, I also realized that they had done the heavy lifting for me, having tried many things, including possible solutions, that excluded those things from the answer.

The problem didn’t have to be something was particularly expert in, because the experts had done all the research and my job was to see what they hadn’t—a much easier proposition than doing all that groundwork, for me in any case. I know I was adding some value because smart people were willing to pay me a lot of money to do my thing, but I was able to do it partly because I learned to assume the people engaged in solving the problem were not ignorant or incompetent, and their work would be the foundation for solving the problem.’

I cringe when I look back on the arrogance of my youth, and the commiserating I engaged in with others who also believed the rest of the world was incompetent while we could walk in and apply our trivial solutions to problems that large teams of specialists failed to solve. When I perceive echoes of this arrogance in my current behavior, I try to stop and reassess, and remember this hard-learned lesson. I try to respect the ability and work of others by judging it favorably in my ignorance rather than being so quick to condemn it.

Once I knew this, I was better at my work and more humble about my knowledge. If I could travel back and speak to me in my 20s, it would be one of the key things I would try to impress on myself—but I suspect I would fail. It took time and a lot of embarrassment to impress it on me.

 

I learned at a very young age that my mother's encouragement of "you're the best" and "you're the smartest" were not true. I also learned that there were other little kids in my class who wouldn't learn this until they were adults and some would never learn.

 

Every new generation thinks it discovered sex and financial leverage.

 

If I may add to the discussion, we must come to learn that even the "experts" do not have the right answers.
The past three years of COVID-19 should reveal this as evident. Even after three years of pandemic we still do not have all the answers and best practices. This not only applies to the global pandemic. It also applies to governments, economics, growth, global warming, etc.

You would think that we could learn from history and our mistakes.

You cannot keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results.

 

You're talking about some forgotten things than Maslow's Pyramid then...Since you'd not been a politician ever :--p

 

I learned this early in my career:

If you know what your boss is telling you to do is wrong, don’t argue with them, implement it your way, show the superior working version, then let your boss think it was their idea.

Edited to use gender neutral pronoun since my bosses have been varied in gender.

 

In my younger days I was conceited, but now I'm perfect !

 

I think the answer to that question has to be "everything".

 

On one particular occasion, I learned a very tough lesson. I was a technical consultant and electronic measurements specialist. I was asked by one of our technical salesman to visit a customer with him because they were having problems with one of our board test systems. They claimed that it was over-driving a microprocessor and damaging the crystal inputs. They were losing a fairly high percent of the product. They had consulted the processor manufacturer who had analyzed some of the devices and sent them micro-photographs of the damaged inputs to the chips.
When I checked the board tester, I found that there were no connections made to the timing inputs on the processor, so that was not the cause. I did notice at the next assembly station a man inserting a display module and riveting it to the board with a small hammer. Drawing on my knowledge and experience, I explained to the engineers that when a piezoelectric crystal is physically deformed, it generates a voltage and striking the circuit board with a hammer would generate voltage spikes big enough to damage the microprocessor inputs. They had never thought of that and thanked me profusely for solving their problem.
When I got back to the office, I proudly explained to my boss what I had done. His response was that I should have asked them how much money the problem was causing them to loose, and charged them a reasonable amount based on that to solve their problem once I realized what the solution was.
I learned that how ever smart I considered myself, I sometimes missed the obvious!

 

If you know what your boss is telling you to do is wrong, don’t argue with them, implement it your way, show the superior working version, then let your boss think it was their idea.

I learned that a different way, and doing that learned how to keep a boss/engineer out of screwing with you.
Do it exactly as you told by them. Even though you know it's wrong and may make things worse.

Then when they throw up their hands and walk away fix it how you would have done in the first place. After a few times of doing that they just tell you, "that machine is not working right, would you fix it".

 

I also learned that there were other little kids in my class who wouldn't learn this until they were adults and some would never learn.

I also learned that even though some kids toys may cost more, the toys you have or get, yours are just as much fun or more fun. Because your not afraid to play with yours.

 

If you know what your boss is telling you to do is wrong, don’t argue with them, implement it your way, show the superior working version, then let your boss think it was their idea.

I couldn't keep my mouth shut. Thus, I became an entrepreneur.

 

On one particular occasion, I learned a very tough lesson. I was a technical consultant and electronic measurements specialist. I was asked by one of our technical salesman to visit a customer with him because they were having problems with one of our board test systems. They claimed that it was over-driving a microprocessor and damaging the crystal inputs. They were losing a fairly high percent of the product. They had consulted the processor manufacturer who had analyzed some of the devices and sent them micro-photographs of the damaged inputs to the chips.
When I checked the board tester, I found that there were no connections made to the timing inputs on the processor, so that was not the cause. I did notice at the next assembly station a man inserting a display module and riveting it to the board with a small hammer. Drawing on my knowledge and experience, I explained to the engineers that when a piezoelectric crystal is physically deformed, it generates a voltage and striking the circuit board with a hammer would generate voltage spikes big enough to damage the microprocessor inputs. They had never thought of that and thanked me profusely for solving their problem.
When I got back to the office, I proudly explained to my boss what I had done. His response was that I should have asked them how much money the problem was causing them to loose, and charged them a reasonable amount based on that to solve their problem once I realized what the solution was.
I learned that how ever smart I considered myself, I sometimes missed the obvious!

In my case, it was an undervalued integration capacitor. About $1M saved, and I was paid $3.85 an hour.

 

I learned that a different way, and doing that learned how to keep a boss/engineer out of screwing with you.
Do it exactly as you told by them. Even though you know it's wrong and may make things worse.

Then when they throw up their hands and walk away fix it how you would have done in the first place. After a few times of doing that they just tell you, "that machine is not working right, would you fix it".

I also learned that method after I became a consultant. Might as well get paid twice for the same job.