Are We Losing the Art of Figuring Things Out?

What instant answers may be doing to reasoning, judgment, and problem solving skills.

You’re sitting around with friends when someone asks, “What was the name of that actor who was in…?”

Years ago, everyone would start trying to figure it out. Someone would remember another movie he was in. Someone else would picture the character but couldn’t remember his name. Someone would confidently give the wrong answer. Eventually, somebody would shout, “That’s it!”

Today, someone reaches for a phone. Google settles the argument as quickly as the internet connection allows.

We got the answer. But we skipped all the figuring out.

When Answers Became Instant

Technology has made finding information remarkably easy. Need directions? GPS will get you there. Can’t remember a fact? Search for it. Need to learn how to repair something? There’s probably a video showing you exactly what to do.

Now, artificial intelligence has taken instant answers another step further. It can summarize information, analyze data, generate ideas, draft communications, and help solve problems in seconds.

These are extraordinary tools, and there’s little value in making something more difficult simply for the sake of doing it ourselves. Few of us would trade GPS for a paper map or spend an afternoon searching through reference books for information available online in seconds.

Still, there may be something worth preserving in the process we have become so good at eliminating.

Figuring It Out Develops Judgment

Consider what happens when you don’t immediately know the answer.

You draw on what you already know, consider possibilities, and eliminate the ones that don’t make sense. You try something, discover it doesn’t work, and adjust. Sometimes you realize the question you started with wasn’t the right question at all.

The process can be frustrating, but something important is happening along the way. You’re developing judgment and strengthening your ability to reason through an unfamiliar problem.

That matters in the workplace because many business problems don’t have one searchable answer. A customer has an unusual request. A project takes an unexpected turn. An employee encounters a situation they’ve never seen before. The information available may be incomplete, contradictory, or simply wrong.

Knowing how to find information is valuable. Knowing whether the information makes sense is another skill entirely.

When Helping Becomes Answering

Technology isn’t the only way we shortcut the process.

When someone we care about has a problem and we know the answer, our instinct is often to provide it. We want to help and may want to spare them some frustration. Sometimes giving them the answer is exactly what they need. Other times, the more valuable help may be giving them the opportunity to reason their way there.

The same is true in the workplace. When an employee approaches an experienced colleague or manager with a problem, providing the answer solves the immediate issue and gets everyone back to work. But if the answer is always supplied, when does the employee learn how to arrive at it?

Sometimes the better response is another question: What have you tried? What do you think is causing the problem? What information are you missing? What would you do next?

Giving employees room to figure things out can also help build the confidence to take greater initiative. In an earlier article, How Managers Can Encourage Initiative Without Saying a Word, we looked at how a manager’s everyday behavior can either encourage or discourage that independence.

It may take a little longer, but those conversations allow experience to be shared rather than simply providing an answer. Over time, the employee develops the problem solving skills and confidence to tackle the next unfamiliar problem independently.

Using the Tools Without Losing the Skill

The answer isn’t to stop searching Google, asking others for help, or using AI. That would mean ignoring tools that can make us more informed, efficient, and productive.

The challenge is recognizing when we’re using a tool to help us think and when we’re asking it to think for us.

Recent research from Microsoft suggests that distinction may matter. A study of knowledge workers found that greater confidence in AI was associated with less critical thinking, reinforcing the importance of staying actively engaged with the answers these tools provide.

There are plenty of times when the answer is all we need. Nobody’s critical thinking skills are likely to suffer because Google found the name of an actor we couldn’t remember.

But some questions deserve more than a quick answer. They deserve curiosity, reasoning, trial and error, and occasionally getting something wrong before figuring out why. That’s how problem-solving skills develop and how experience becomes good judgment.

The next time you’re tempted to immediately search for an answer, ask someone else, or turn to technology, consider whether this is a question you simply need answered or a problem worth figuring out.

Because sometimes what we learn while searching for the answer is more valuable than the answer itself.