The universal formula for solving problems: three strategies: top, middle and bottom

When we encounter a problem, where should we start? The premise of solving a problem is to cultivate a problem-solving mindset. Starting from solving the problem, this article introduces in detail the universal formula for solving the problem and the corresponding way of thinking. The top-middle-bottom decision-making is a universal way to solve the problem, which can easily solve most problems. It is recommended for students who want to cultivate their way of thinking and improve their problem-solving ability.

It is said that data analysts are like military strategists. Let’s take a look at the style in which military strategists make suggestions.

Ancient counselors had a classic style of making suggestions, which was to propose three strategies: the best, the middle and the worst. When Liu Bei was fighting in Xichuan, Pang Tong proposed such a plan:

The best strategy is to launch a surprise attack on Chengdu, that is, to select elite troops to attack at night. If successful, Yizhou can be captured.

The middle strategy is to first kill Yang Huai and Gao Pei, the generals who prevented Liu Bei from occupying Yizhou, and then march to Chengdu;

The worst strategy is to take a roundabout approach, return to Jingzhou first to reorganize the troops, and then launch the attack when the time is right.

When I read this as a child, I was a little confused.

Why should we choose the middle option when we already have the best option?

1. Why do we need three strategies: upper, middle and lower?

There is a saying that the three strategies proposed by counselors are a self-protection mechanism.

If you only give your leader one choice, then if things go wrong, you will not be able to escape the blame.

But if you give the leader three choices, if they fail then it is the decision maker's responsibility.

so what:

Best = Recommended Configuration

Medium = Minimum configuration

The worst option = If you insist on doing this, please click on this disclaimer first

There is some truth to this, but I prefer another way of saying it.

The best, middle and worst strategies represent implementation plans under different conditions.

The best strategy is the optimal solution to this target problem.

In order to achieve my goal, regardless of the actual situation, what is the most ideal situation? What is the optimal solution? What conditions do I need to achieve the optimal solution?

The best policy is perfect, but unfortunately it only exists in hypothesis. In reality, many conditions cannot meet the hypothetical conditions of the best policy, so it is said that "the best policy is too hasty, and the worst policy is too slow."

In order to reconcile the contradiction between the best policy and the current situation, there is a middle policy.

The middle strategy is a compromise between the best strategy and the best strategy based on the actual situation. The middle strategy retains the most important part, abandons some non-core conditions, or adds some other resources to make up for it. The final result may not be as perfect as the best strategy, but the implementation difficulty of the middle strategy is lower and more realistic. Although the result is not perfect, it is acceptable.

If the decision maker is not satisfied with the middle strategy and thinks the loss is too great, he can only continue to settle for the second best and make the worst strategy. The worst strategy is a countermeasure with lower execution difficulty, giving up more non-core conditions and investing fewer resources, but the probability of success and the result report are also lower.

Let me give you an example to help you understand.

If you ask me how to chase the goddess of my dreams:

For this question, the ideal situation is that you have very attractive qualities, the goddess is attracted to you, and you are headed for it.

To achieve this goal, the best strategy is

From today on, read books, exercise, dress appropriately, delete all games and short video apps, stop all entertainment activities, devote yourself to study and work, and when you reach the peak of your life, girls will naturally be attracted to you, and you will have success in both career and love.

Even if you fail to attract the goddess in the end, you can still become a better person, and you will have a better chance of finding love next time.

But you will find that although the best strategy is good, it is impossible to do it.

You can only compromise with reality. You don't have to achieve the perfect state mentioned above, but only pick some areas that the goddess likes most.

So, the middle policy is

Understand her circle and hobbies, work hard in these areas and become a semi-expert, then casually reveal in front of her that you have similar interests, and then use your knowledge in these areas to attract her.

If you still feel that the middle strategy is too tiring, you need to spend time understanding others and learn a lot of things, which is very troublesome.

Well, I can only use the worst strategy. The worst strategy does not guarantee success, but it is very simple.

The next best option is:

Ask her about her well-being every day, buy her breakfast, help her move, be the first to like her posts on WeChat Moments, and be consistent with her regardless of whether she has a boyfriend or not. When a girl encounters setbacks in love, and suddenly looks back and finds that you are still waiting for her, she may understand your value and want to be with you.

The worst strategy seems to involve a lot of things, but they are all things within one's ability, and are actually the simplest. However, the success rate is much lower, and such people usually end up becoming bootlickers.

2. Universal formula

The three strategies of upper, middle and lower correspond to three different ways of thinking.

1. The best way of thinking is to find the essence of the problem. To solve a problem, you must first find the essence of the problem, sort out the conditions required for the goal, and then find ways to achieve those conditions.

2. The middle strategy is a more down-to-earth way of thinking that combines the best strategy with the actual environment and compromises. The middle strategy focuses on executable and feasible paths.

3. The worst strategy is usually to ignore the nature of the problem and only do the simple things that you can do.

In life, many of us think about problems with the worst-case scenario thinking. For example, the question "How to make 1 million in a year?"

Many people would think, if they earn 1 million yuan a year, but their salary is only a few hundred thousand yuan, why not do some side jobs, shoot some short videos, or do some small business? Then they can invest in some funds and earn tens of thousands of yuan every year.

This kind of thinking is point-like, with ideas popping up one by one . These ideas are basically what you can do at the moment, which is the standard worst-case thinking.

If we use the best strategy thinking, that is, the thinking method of finding the essence of the problem to think about this problem, then we should think about what ways we can make 1 million in a year?

The answer could be salary income, investment dividend income, sideline income, etc. If it is salary income, what conditions need to be met to reach the goal of 1 million? What skills are needed? What certificates are required? Which company should I go to? How to ask for a salary increase, etc.

If you can earn a million yuan a year by working for a large company, but your resume is not good enough to get into a large company, what should you do? Make some compromises and make a middle-of-the-road plan. You can give up working for a large company and work for a medium-sized company to increase your salary by 50%, then increase your income from side jobs, reduce your expenses and use it for investment.

The strategy of thinking from top to bottom is more effective in execution than the worst option because it breaks down the problem from its essence.

This three-strategy thinking is also a universal problem-solving method.

The above mentioned using three-strategy thinking to think about various problems such as how to pursue a goddess and how to make 1 million a year. The same applies to other problems.

For example, at a work meeting, your boss asks you some questions. You can use this all-purpose framework to answer the questions:

For this demand, I think the most ideal situation is to meet XX conditions and XX conditions. If these conditions are met, I am confident that this goal can be achieved within half a year. (Best strategy)

However, these conditions require a lot of resources. As a second choice, I think if we only keep some core functions and add two development engineers, we can complete it within another three months. (Zhongce)

Finally, if the company cannot provide these resources, then I think we can only implement XXX function. (The worst option) This sentence is much more organized than the worst option thinking that requires condition A, condition B, condition C, etc.

3. Summary

Let’s summarize today’s topic.

The best strategy is the optimal solution to the problem, the middle strategy is a compromise based on actual conditions, and the worst strategy is the least laborious but least effective.

The three strategies of upper, middle and lower are a universal problem-solving thinking method that can help you solve most problems.

Author: Jason

Source: WeChat public account: "Three-dimensional variance" (ID: 686668)