Principles for solving problems

by Edmund C. Berkeley

• 1. The Principle of Ignorance ("what you don't know won't hurt you")
• 2. The Principle of Fate ("Allah wills it")
• 3. The Principle of Waiting ("everything comes to him who waiting")
• 4. The Principle of Postponement ("never do today what you can put off till tomorrow")
• 5. The Principle of Procrastination ("if you wait long enough, problem will take care of itself")
• 6. The Principle of Mr. Micawber ("something will turn up")
• 7. The Principle of Pure Chance ("let's flip a coin")
• 8. The Principle of Nonsense ("let's see what the horoscope indicates")
• 9. The Principle of Denial ("there is really no problem at all - you're just worrying over nothing")
• 10. The Principle of Intuition ("let your subconscious work on it while you sleep")
• 11. The Principle of Willpower ("man has free will and can choose or not choose")
• 12. The Principle of Tolerance ("de gustibus non disputandum" - "about tastes there is no sense in disputing")
• 13. The Principle of Forgiveness ("forgive them, for they know not what they do")
• 14. The Principle of Departure ("that problem is not for me, and I am leaving")
• 15. The Principle of Dealing with Mountains ("if the mountain won't come to Mahomet, Mahomet must go to the mountain")
• 16. The Principle of Faultfinding ("it's your fault it does not work")
• 17. The Principle of Poor Me ("nothing ever goes right for me")
• 18. The Principle of Excuse ("this is why it did not work - listen...")
• 19. The Principle of Not Invented Here ("any method or idea not invented here is no good")
• 20. The Principle of Action ("don't just stand there - do something, anything")
• 21. The Principle of Authority ("consult an expert, and do what he says")
• 22. The Principle of Experience ("experience is the best teacher")
• 23. The Principle of Trial and Error ("if at first you don't succeed, try and try again")
• 24. The Principle of Successive Approximation ("if at first you don't succeed, try some more - but learn from each trial")
• 25. The Principle of Theory and Practice ("theory enriches practice, and practice modifies theory")
• 26. The Principle of Calculation ("figure it out, compute it")
• 27. The Principle of Feedback Control ("every time the process strays off a little, correct it, bring it back to the desired condition")
• 28. The Principle of Science and the Scientific Method ("experiment, draw conclusions, and test them")
• 29. The Principle of Systems Analysis and Synthesis ("take all the factors into account")
• 30. The Principle of Careful, Systematic Verification ("continually check all statements - they tend to get out of date")