Problem-Solving Under Pressure

Near the end of a long morning building a small table, I encountered the following simple geometry problem:  I needed to cut four small rectangles from a square of self-adhesive rubber to serve as the feet of the table’s legs.  So I cut the square into four equal strips, lopped off the end of eachand had my feet.

All well and good, but I missed the superior solution that any decent problem solver should have seen immediately:

This solution would have left me with one long rectangular remainder, as opposed to four small square remainders.

After working on the table for a while, I was mentally and physically drained, and I think this affected my ability to see the better solution.  I guess it makes sense that being tired [and frustrated!] would negatively impact one’s ability to solve problems.

It’s interesting to think about how our physical, mental, and emotional states can affect our problem-solving abilities.  And I think this suggests that problem-solving stamina is something we might want to work on.