Complicated problem? Simple Solution?

Question

Does anyone remember a time when an inexperienced person came up with a simple solution to a seemingly complicated porblem?

I guess I need to specify something that should have been obvious: I'm talking about problems that worked. To reject simple solutions just because they're simple is stupid. I should have also specified that people are allowed to think. THINK!

PS. After I asked this question, I realized what some of the responses would be like and I had already prepared the answer. . I THOUGHT! Stupid answers are easy to predict. Valid ones are not.

I need to apoligize here. I get so many stupid answers, and I expected them so much that I misread some at first. I think it's called post-traumatic stress disorder. I had just gotten out of bed, too.

Answer 1

There is the apocryphal story of a double-decker bus in London that was rerouted because of roadwork, and got stuck when it tried to go under a bridge that was evidently two or three inches to low. The driver had hit the bridge with sufficient force that it was firmly wedged, and experts & engineers were busily trying to formulate a plan as to how the bus could be extracted.

Legend has it that it was a 7-year-old little girl who asked "why don't you just let the tyres down?"

(she said "tyres" rather than "tires" because she was English.)

Answer 2

Yes, most complicated problems have really simple solutions. Humans tend to make it more complicated by over thinking and trying to cater for and control all variables imaginable. Example, you want that last piece of cake but then you think: 1) It's the last piece what if someone else wants it 2) How will it look to others if I eat the last piece 3) Will I still fit into my clothes if I eat it 4) I have already had a piece earlier 5) Should I ask everyone first before I take it 6) Etc Simple Solution: 1) You want it, then eat it!!!! LOL

Answer 3

The earliest "Newcomen" steam engines were put through their power cycle by an unskilled attendant manually opening and closing various valves in their correct sequence and at the correct times. According to Wikipedia, legend has it that in 1713 such a boy, one Humphrey Potter, charged with opening the valves, grew bored and wanted to play with the other children, so he set up ropes to automate the process from the motion of the engine itself.

Answer 4

the egg in the Columbus story

Christopher Columbus answered a critic by challenging him to balance an egg on its tip. When the man failed, Columbus crushed the egg slightly, flattening it so that the egg could stand. He thus proved that a discovery seems obvious only after it has been made by someone with the vision to imagine it.

Answer 5

There's probably a mix of them. Like in math books, there sometimes are difficult problems that challenge you, but then there are the simple ones to remind you that not everything is to be overestimated. What's important is to have moderation between the two.

Answer 6

Strange but true: Spread spectrum radio transmission (the technology behind secure military radio communications) was invented by actress Heddy Lamar in 1942:

Answer 7

Often there is a simple solution if we just take a little time to think about the problem.

Answer 8

Just stay in bed!!

Answer 9

if you dont drink alcohol you wont get drunk

Answer 10

no but i guess its possible