What vacation should we take?
When your friends cannot seem to agree on the timing and destination for your group vacation, you need a way to figure it out together. The Meta-Problem Method can help.
Complex problems are often vague and have many possible solutions. The Meta-Problem Method may lead you far away from the dilemma that started your quest. That’s because the method forces you to clarify what you really want and what you are willing to give up. It enables you to compare objectively the possible pathways and their trade offs. It prevents you locking into solutions mode too early and then doubling down on solving a low-yield problem that does not serve your goals as well as the alternatives. At the end of this process, you will have a better understanding of your priorities and how to achieve them.
Steps in the Meta-Problem Method
Dilemma
The high-level issue you are trying to address
Choose the best vacation for the group.
Goal
The changes you want to make to address the dilemma. There are usually many options.
Supporting Goals
- Have fun.
- Eat tasty food.
Other goals could include time to relax, spending time with each other, seeing something new, and minimizing costs.
Problem Space
The set of problems you could chose to solve to advance your goals, plus the constraints that hold you back.
Example problems
- Do we all have the same definition of “fun”? Maybe the problem to solve is “which activities are fun for the whole group?”
- What kind of food does each person want? Maybe the problem to solve is “how can we balance different food-related priorities among everyone?”
There are many other potential problems to solve related to planning a vacation. Each goal has many possible problems we could link to it. Are there other problems linked to these first two goals? Which options come to mind for the other goals?
High-Yield Problems
Sometimes solving one problem helps make progress towards several goals. In this step, we identify these “two-for-the-price-of-one” problems.
Which options will advance more than one goal?
- Going on vacation to a new city ensures a huge variety of potential activities which means everyone can have fun, there are many restaurant options for tasty food, and seeing something new. However, city visits are often more expensive, with less time to relax or spend quality time together.
- Going on vacation to a resort has many fun activities, some will have tasty food, and there will be time to relax. However, costs may be higher, not everyone enjoys resort activities, and there are not that many new things to see in just the one place.
There are many potential solutions that will have varying effects on the set of goals. Which alternatives improve the most important goals? How might the unknown change the right path forward? What other possible solutions are there to address the dilemma?
Problem Selection
Which of the many possible options in the high-yield problem step is the best set to address the dilemma?
- Which solutions make the most sense as friends?
- Which solutions will best address the dilemma?
- Which solutions will deliver the best outcome for the least amount of time, effort and money?
Implement, Learn and Adapt
Check continuously that you are still solving the best problem, as new information emerges.
Observe and learn as you go. As new information reveals itself, check continuously that you’re still solving the best problem.