[Translation]“How to Solve It” never goes out of style

Article copyright by Kate Rutter
Kate Rutter版权所有
作者：Kate Rutter
译者：UCD翻译小组，Abigail
原文地址：http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2008/10/08/how-to-solve-it-never-goes-out-of-style/

白天，我做体验设计工作，建立抽象概念的模型，制作界面，被铺天盖地的邮件所淹没，在无数工作生活完美兼顾的人群中往来。

当我回到家里，我就画草图、哼歌、看看数学。

我想说明的是我的计算能力很糟糕。直到现在，有的时候我还需要依靠我的手指。我非常庆幸我的电脑上有一个小数字计算器。至于概念上的数学呢？我太喜欢了.....阿基米德, 费尔马, 柏努利, 巴贝奇, 洛夫莱斯, 梅森, 傅立叶, 图灵, 帕斯卡, 斐波纳契, 莫比斯, 笛卡尔, 鄂尔多斯, 波利亚…这些都让我津津有味！

数学有很多基本要素和模式。数学概念是成熟的，并且带有隐喻，可被应用于日常生活中。正在探求时间上的变化规律吗？与组合数学狂欢吧。正在为你的收件箱从来只接近零而从未到过零而疑惑吗？你好，微积分！渴望用全新的方式去思考？来，读一下艾伯特的《平面世界》。

现在，当我看到乔治波利亚1945的经典著作《怎样解决问题》。作为提高我们生活品位的方法，数学再次让我惊叹于它的美好，它的简单，它的全能。以思考解决一个问题的过程为基础，波利亚的所提供的方法能很好地被用来解决数字王国之外的大量问题。

举个例子，为了即将开展的一系列在用户家里举行的领域研究访谈，我一直在集中精力准备访谈会议。这里用到了波利亚关于了解任务的说明：

Q: 我应该从什么地方开始？
A: 从任务陈述入手。

Q: 我可以做些什么？
A: 使任务整体尽可能地被清晰而生动地形象化。这时不要纠缠于细节。

Q: 这么做我可以获得什么？
A: 你将会理解任务，熟悉任务，并把它的目标刻在你的脑海里。对于任务的关注还会刺激起你的记忆，让你回想起与之相关的要点。

这是一个具有直接应用性的简单明了的指示：
理解任务和问题：我们想要通过这次研究实现什么目的？我们需要了解什么？
准备接受体验：身临其境……人们存在着什么问题？他们在每天的生活中都在经历些什么？
开放思维看到正确的事物：与任务紧密联系可以使你的脑子优先接收到最相关的、最有效的信息。

数学，就像设计，只有当它简单而且明显时才是绝妙的。而设计作品，也像数学，只有在清楚地致力于解决重要问题时才是绝妙的。这就是优秀的基本要素。

感谢波利亚，你是最棒的。
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原文：
In the daytime, I work on creating experiences, building models of abstract concepts, making interfaces, feeling deluged by email and navigating the myriad of human contacts that make work and life play nice together.

But when I get home, I sketch, hum and play with math.

I’ll make one thing clear: I’m terrible at computation. I still count of my fingers on occasion. I thank the heavens for the little digital calculator on my computer. But conceptual math? I’m all over it…Archimedes, Fermat, Bernoulli, Babbage, Lovelace, Mersenne, Fourier, Turing, Pascal, Fibonacci, Mobius, Descartes, Erdos, Polya…yum, yum.

There’s something elemental and patternist about math. The principles are ripe with metaphor and opportunities to apply to everyday life. Looking for transformation over time? Have a ball with combinatorics. Wondering why your inbox always approaches zero but never gets there? Hello, calculus! Yearning to think outside the box? Welcome to Abbot’s Flatland.

So today, when I picked up George Polya’s 1945 classic How to Solve It I was again inspired by the beauty, the simplicity, the utter power of math as a system to better understand life.

Starting with the basics of thinking through a problem, Polya’s approach is applicable to a wide range of problems well outside the realm of numbers.

For example, I’m about to head into a series of field research interviews with people in their homes. I’ve been working to center my brain to prepare for the interview sessions. And here is what Polya says about Getting Acquainted with a problem:

Q: Where should I start?
A: Start from the statement of the problem.
Q: What can I do?
A: Visualize the problem as a whole as clearly and as vividly as you can. Do not concern yourself with details at the moment.
Q: What can I gain by doing so?
A: You should understand the problem, familiarize yourself with it, impress its purpose on your mind. The attention bestowed on the problem may also stimulate your memory and prepare for the recollection of relevant points.

That’s a clear, concise message with direct applicability:
Know the problems and questions: What are we trying to accomplish with this research? What do we need to learn?
Prepare yourself to wear the experience: Be vivid…what issues exist for people? What are their experiences in day-to-day life?
Open your mind to seeing the right things: Be in tune with the problem so that your brain is primed to receive the most relevant, potent learnings from the experience.

Math, like design, is best when the concepts are so simple they become obvious. And design work, like math, is best when it’s clearly focused on solving important problems. That’s good stuff.

Thanks, Polya. You’re the best.