Solutionism

“Not least of the effects of industrialism is that we become mechanized in mind, and consequently attempt to provide solutions in terms of engineering, for problems which are essentially problems of life.”

-         T.S. Eliot

It’s the eternal problem women have with men: women just want the guy to listen to her problem. The guy insists on trying to fix the problem. (Well ok, it’s just one of the problems women have with men, but that’s a topic a woman should write about).

There is a term for this mindset: solutionism. (And before you ask, no, the origin of that term does not lie in women’s opinion about men). I wrote about the problems with TED thinking a few blogs back. That too mentioned solutionism as one of the problems with that way of thinking.

Remember that saying about how to a man with a hammer, every problem appears like a nail? Guess what, it gets even worse: We humans even invent solutions and then look for a problem it will solve!

If that sounds outlandish, think of the laser. Hard to imagine a world without it, right? It’s used in CD’s, surgeries and data storage, to name a few applications. And yet it was invented without any purpose in mind!

Evgeny Morozov, in his don’t-go-overboard-with-technology book, To Save Everything, Click Here:

“I believe that not everything that could be fixed should be fixed — even if the latest technologies make the fixes easier, cheaper, and harder to resist. Sometimes, imperfect is good enough; sometimes, it’s much better than perfect…And yet, in our political, personal, and public lives — much like in our computer systems — not all bugs are bugs; some bugs are features.”

and:

“Only by unlearning solutionism — that is, by transcending the limits it imposes on our imaginations and by rebelling against its value system — will we understand why attaining technological perfection, without attending to the intricacies of the human condition and accounting for the complex world of practices and traditions, might not be worth the price.”

He does have a point. And so do the women who complain about men. But sorry, we men are unlikely to change: we’d rather have our gadgets than live in caves. And we men don’t have an Off switch for that mindset.