Count the Squares

Count the squares

I’ve been thinkin’ again. You don’t know this about me. But I think a lot. Then again, you probably do know this about me, because it’s true of you, too. It’s the human condition—we think a lot. And I’ve been thinkin’ about what it is we think about.

My first inclination is to think that we spend most of our time thinking about problems, but I don’t think that’s true. I think we think mostly about solutions. Even in leisure moments we seek out problems so we can think about solutions. That’s how we read the papers. The front page so we can think about solutions to weighty state and national and world problems. 

But it’s the puzzles that we spend more time actually focusing our thoughts on. And the harder the Sudoku, the better. When we do solve the crossword puzzle, we enjoy our success, but not for long. A solution found sends us looking for another problem to solve.

The better mouse trap is never invented to make money or even to catch a better mouse. It’s the solution to the next problem.