CHAPTER 2
Smell the Problem

An essential part of seeing clearly is finding the willingness to look closely and go beyond our own ideas.

—CHERI HUBER, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH YOU

All too often, attempting to solve hard problems is done almost exclusively at a desk, in a conference room, or behind a computer. Or, if you’re in the field, you’re just taking action, trying out different solutions. For problems of any significant difficulty, you need to start with your hands in your pockets, and your senses open. You need to get out there and study the problem in detail.

As a problem-solver of any system—be it a machine, a circuit, a code base, your body, or your habits—your mission is to smell the problem. Get out there and thoroughly describe the problem in detail with all of your senses: Record your observations of when and where the problem is occurring. Get the information you need to understand the problem, but don’t just get reams of data that you’re hoping will help you guess the solution—getting to the root cause of the problem comes later. Go back to smelling the problem more as you need to.