Volume 4 · The Ledger and the Loom · Essay 109
Gordian Problem Solving Approach
Gordian Problem Solving Approach is the kind of technique that looks too simple to respect and too useful to ignore.
The method fails only in one way: people read it, nod, and return to the old habit. The technique is not the hard part. The hard part is Tuesday.
Strip it to the floor and you find an old instruction: look carefully, judge slowly, act decently. The new name exists because the old instruction keeps being forgotten.
A rupee saved loudly impresses people for a day. A rupee invested quietly feeds them for years. The bazaar respects the first; life rewards the second.
Money is a good clerk and a terrible master; the arrangement is entirely up to us. The idea has done its job if, the next time it happens to you, you smile before you react.