Problem space

There’s a reason to eschew advice. Advice offers a solution, usually in the form of an isolated technique. That technique is but one path through the multidimensional topology of a problem space. It has peaks and valleys, rivers and dense woods. And depending on your moment-by-moment constraints, you might not want to take that path.

• Individual Constraints: My lungs could not handle a walk up a mountain.
• Task Constraints: I need to find water, better to head to the river.
• Environmental Constraints: Is that a wildfire? Flee… flee…

Here’s how I now see the writing advice, “show don’t tell.”

This diagram pares the problem space down to two dimensions, but really there are dozens of dimensions with so many degrees of freedom it makes piloting a helicopter seem simple in comparison. In this case I’m only looking at level of effort on the y-axis and the conflicting features of pace and depth on the x-axis.

Most of us start in the corner labeled Equal Neglect. We don’t quite know how to improve pace or depth. With increased effort, we move towards either pace or depth. We rarely improve in both dimensions at once. With greater effort we can find Balanced Parity where we balance pace and depth, but to stay in this corner you either have to increase your energy budget or efficiency at this task.

The point is, there are many possible solutions in this problem space, and while “show don’t tell” is a good solution much of the time, the solution always has to be matched to the current constraints.