Down To The Core, Change the World.

The reason any remarkable product is created is (arguably) to solve a core problem. That much is somewhat common knowledge.

But, why?

Good question, why would you want to find a core problem and not just address the obvious?

• Short answer: Because it’s the only way to truly innovate
• Long answer: Aiming to solve a superficial problem shrinks your scope to what has already been done. If you want to “make a better X” all you have to work with are X, and ways to improve X. Your frame of reference is extremely reduced and if you’re lucky, all you’ll achieve would be a good copy.

But, how?

This is a question I’ve been thinking about for a while now. Trying to find a reliable and reproducible way to identify a core problem to build upon.

I believe I’ve finally found the answer. I highly doubt I’m the first person to come up with this idea, but I haven’t been able to find any reference to this technique. Therefore, I’ll go ahead and coin the term.

Problem Complexity Distillation

I define Problem Complexity Distillation (or PCD from now on) as the process of simplifying a problem until you can’t simplify it any further without breaking it.

Here’s an example.

Imagine you’re Steve Jobs and you want to create the original iPhone. This is speculation, but I’m pretty sure his thought process was not as follows.

Because, logically, there was no iPhone before the iPhone. There’s also the little detail of people having phones for the past 100 years. How do you revolutionize an industry that’s thought to be saturated?

With PDC, of course! (or something approximating that, do whatever works for you, I’m not a cop)

Let’s pick the iPhone example. and work down from a high-level problem you want to address to its simplest form. Again, this is just speculation but an interesting thought experiment nonetheless.

By asking a few questions related to the meaning of each problem, I believe I’ve reached the limit my mind can simplify the concept. I can’t reasonably think of any word or idea that could replace any of the terms I ended up with, without breaking the whole concept. So, “I need to express” it is.

I believe that’s a reliable way to come up with a problem that, when addressed, can revolutionize an industry and, why not, change the world.

In conclusion.

Find a superficial problem and distill it until it can’t shrink anymore. That’s your core problem. Now go and solve it. The world needs changing