Problem-Solving and
Decision-Making in
Software Development
Linda Rising
[email protected]
www.lindarising.org
@RisingLinda
Disclaimer: This provocative presentation is ideally the
beginning of a conversation. It won't take long for me to
tell you everything I know about cognitive psychology,
although I have been reading in the area for several
years now. I'm an amateur who has sufficient interest in
weird topics and a strange way of connecting ideas that
might or might not be of interest to you. Thank you for
your tolerance and understanding of my meanderings
and I hope you learn a little that might help you in your
life.
This is not an “academic” presentation, but those
interested in more information are invited to ask me for
references for any part of this talk and I will be happy to
make them available.
Scientists and journals prefer positive findings and bury
negative studies. Always be a little skeptical!
What is thinking?
Thinking or decision-making
here?
h
Similarities in the two settings?
Sitting
Long periods of focused attention without a
break
Inside – no connection with Nature, no natural
light
Drab, probably noisy surroundings
Tired, over-caffeinated individuals
My goal: useful tips and
techniques
Cognitive science is fast growing, uses controlled
experiments, on-going re-testing, explosion in
results
Our field is slow growing, few, if any controlled
experiments (mostly anecdotes, case studies)
We should pay attention – it might help us do our
work better !
Move!
Blink, move your eyes from side to side,
turn your head from side to side
Look at the horizon, look around, look
outside
Stand up
Lie down
Walk – even 5 minutes
Sitting is the new smoking. Sitting kills !
Treadmill Desk
JustStand.org
Videos\Ergotron.flv
Standing/Walking Meetings
Kaiser Permanente, Oakland, CA-based health plan
http://www.tedeytan.com/2008/01/10/148
“We actually do have walking meetings at Kaiser
Permanente, believe it or not. My team is pretty
productive, so it must be working.” Ray Baxter
Baxter believes walking together can change the dynamics
of interactions.
Recent study of stand-up meetings shows they took 34%
less time and produced decisions that were equally
good.
Not all meetings should be stand ups!
Salo walking meeting – financial
services company in Minneapolis
Take a Short Break
Bio break, coffee break (caffeine is the subject of
another talk), smokers’ edge !
Quick walk – effective persuasion technique – walk
sideways or backward
I've walked myself into my best thoughts. Kierkegaard
Work on a different hard problem – NOT multitasking (can you listen to two songs at the same
time?)
Work on a different easy problem – quickly do some
routine task
Nap Rooms!
When Arianna Huffington is looking for
inspiration, she goes to sleep. “There are
many, many great ideas locked inside of
us. We just need to close our eyes to see
them.”
There are three nap rooms in the offices of
the Huffington Post Media Group.
Power Nap
Ostrich Pillow
The Ultimatum Game
In pairs of subjects, Player A is given money (e.g.
$10) and makes an offer to Player B. If B
accepts, both keep their money. If B rejects,
both get nothing.
Typically low offers (e.g. $2) are rejected. Why?
Research shows that if players take a 10-min
break, low offers are accepted. Take Ten!
Counting helps, counting backward even better!
Do “Nothing”
Compared with engaging in a demanding task, rest,
or no break, engaging in an undemanding task
led to substantial improvement in performance
on previously encountered problems.
Processing a barrage of information leaves us too
fatigued to learn. The brain needs downtime.
We think we’re relaxing by distracting ourselves,
but we’re fatiguing our brains.
We’re biased toward action
Research shows we would rather fail when doing
something than risk failing doing nothing
Study of 300 soccer goalies: stay in the center,
stop ~1/3 of opponents’ shots; dive left, stop
~14% of shots; dive right, stop ~12%
Even when faced with data, goalies choose to
move rather than staying put
“My commute is my most productive
creative time when I’m not focusing on
anything.”
Chris Cox, Facebook’s Product Chief
Drink, Eat
Even mild dehydration affects the brain –
always have water on hand – watch the
caffeine
Decision-making requires energy, if tired
and hungry people are forced to make
decisions, they look for the easy way out
Study of judges granting more favorable
verdict after breaks
Distract the Loud Guy
The loud guy = Conscious mind - slow,
linear, forgetful
The quiet guy = Unconscious - fast, can
multi-task, knows everything, but is
inaccessible
Keeping the conscious mind occupied on
some other task allows the unconscious
to get through to you
Multi-tasking? Sorry !
The conscious mind cannot multi-task but
must context switch as does any linear
processor
Heavy multi-taskers have been shown to
have no beneficial abilities and to be
suckers for irrelevancy
Bottom line: multi-tasking is bad, sorry !
Look up!
Only 25% looked both ways
1/3 listen to music, text, on the phone
Texting pedestrians ~4 times more
likely to cross against the light, fail to
look both ways.
Those listening to music walked more
quickly but less likely to look both
ways before crossing.
Distracted behavior helps account for
accidents that injure more than
60,000 per year and kill more than
4,000 in the US alone.
Nature Nurtures
Plants (must be the real thing, not photos
or displays) improve innovative and
creative thinking
Looking outside improves health
Walking outside, even for a few minutes,
improves decision-making (better than
walking in urban areas) by restoring
ability to focus
Cardboard consultant
Explain the problem out loud to something
or someone else – a stuffed animal, a
photo, or another person who does not
have to understand what you are talking
about !
Use this technique in meetings – have
proposers of different solutions explain
their version of the problem (not the
solution!) to others
Write, Draw, Sketch
Typing is the least effective means for
description
Writing by hand is useful for solving
problems of all kinds
Drawing, sketching are also helpful –
research shows that doodlers remember
more information than note-takers –
encourage doodling at meetings!
Doodle.com
Write it down!
You forget 50% of what you hear in about
4 hours, so write it down.
J.B. Rainsberger, “Get stuff out of your
head, now!”
www.jbrains.ca/permalink/get-stuff-out-of-your-head-now
Happy people are more productive
The visual cortex of happier people takes in more
information so they "see" more and as a result
have more insight
Posture – sit up, both feet on the floor, arms open,
pull work toward you, nod your head (slouching
makes you sad)
Language – choose affirming words “like,”
“positive,” find areas of agreement, “yes, and”
Smile – research shows this to be as effective as
anti-depressants ! Fake it!
Smile !
Architecture has Cognitive
Consequences
Hard vs. soft chair or weight of a document influences how
“hard” or “weighty” we believe an issue to be
Information in black & white makes us more judgmental
(right or wrong, no “gray” area)
Temperature of room or drinks influences how we feel
about others around us.
Higher ceilings increases innovation. Lower ceiling
concentrates on details.
Noisy environments are harmful. Music we like is more
distracting than music we don’t like! Fast, loud music
interferes most with comprehension.
Art spurs innovation
But don’t use Einstein!
Brainstorming
Brainstorming “invented” in the 1940s – is
intuitively appealing – we all get together and
follow some simple rules to generate
innovative ideas
Research shows that individuals working on their
own produce a higher quantity/quality of ideas
than those in groups and avoids “social
loafing” and “groupthink”
Stressed people tend to conform more to social
opinion.
Solomon Asch Experiment
Groupthink—use Champion Skeptic
Getting a lot of smart people in the room is no
insurance against Groupthink.
J.F.K.’s Bay of Pigs fiasco is the classic example.
After this, Kennedy appointed his brother
Devil’s Advocate—to function like a good
lawyer requiring group members to examine
carefully the pros and cons of policy
alternatives before they agree upon the best
course of action.
More effective than brainstorming
Quiet storming after preparation
Independence is a requirement for
individual action
Distance decisions
Imagine you are solving a problem or making a
decision for someone else.
Imagining you are far away from the issue leads to
more rational reactions and decisions.
We are better at estimating others’ health risks!
Andy Grove (Intel CEO) asked Gordon Moore
(COO), “If we got kicked out and the board
brought in a new CEO, what do you think he
would do?”
Effort is not importance
Most decisions are unimportant
Create decision-making rules and stick with it
Sample rules:
 Timebox, e.g. allow 5 minutes
 Delegate, e.g. let a friend pick the movie
 Taking a break allows more rationality
Diversity!
Have more women on the team or involved
somehow.
Preliminary research shows higher quality
collaboration, changes the behavior of
the male members, increases group
intelligence and overall performance.
http://hbr.org/2011/06/defend-your-researchwhat-makes-a-team-smarter-more-women/
Do Food…together
Everyone had lunch, tea, coffee together, they spent a lot of time
talking and I wondered how anyone was getting any work done!
But the conversations were not about the latest movie—they were
always talking about science, suggesting ideas for experiments,
sharing ideas, critiquing, giving feedback.
Now we eat lunch in our offices alone, doing e-mail. IMHO, this is a
lousy way of doing science. You can't learn anything by doing email.
At the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, 2009 chemistry laureate
Thomas Steitz recalled the Laboratory of Molecular Biology at
Cambridge in the 1960s.
Closer = more innovation
Recent Harvard study shows that
collaborators working within 10 km of each
other produced more innovative ideas.
Researchers suggest: frequent,
spontaneous, “real” as opposed to virtual
interactions lead to more innovation.
Small Steps
We have a sense that large, complex problems
require large, complex solutions.
Organizations and software are examples of
complex systems where the impact of any
change is difficult to predict
The often-overlooked approach of Small Steps
(it’s a pattern!) is a better road to success
where the result of each small experiment can
be seen before the next step is taken.
Concrete Action Plan
Cutting edge suggestions
Singing reduces stress and lowers blood
pressure
Avoid buyer’s remorse - hand washing bring a sense of closure to the decision,
don’t continue to debate
Animals!
Research shows dogs in
the workplace result
in better collaboration
within teams.
I now get to validate the information you sent me
on Dogs and Development. I moved to Google
as a Technical Advisor about 9 months ago
and I am able to bring my dogs to work! It is
really fun to see the different breeds on
campus. My role is very interesting and I am
leading software patent projects and
innovation initiatives. Keep in touch!
Kevin Brune, Google
See the world differently !
Menlo Innovations
menloinnovations.com/
Software design and
development should
be a joyful
experience.
To achieve this joy, we
have changed
everything.
Thinking Tips Summary
Move
Eat/drink (no energy drinks)
Color
Nature
Animals
Take a break
Sleep
Try your own experiments
From Fearless Change:
 Test the waters
 Time for Reflection
 Small Success
 Step by Step
Thanks for listening!