Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Snow Whites Problem, The Facts

Considering the Facts

“Hmmm,” says Snow White, stroking her jaw…“I’ve determined what the problem is…I need to decide what to do….I need to figure our the best way to get out of the pickle I find myself in.” Hmmm well what are the facts?”

At this point let me point out that there are two types of Facts

1. Hard Facts
2. Assumed Facts.

I will pontificate on assumed facts later…for now lets look at the Hard Facts.

A hard fact in a social problem is a given…For example:

1. Snow White is in the forest.
2. Snow White is lost.
3. Snow White was told not to enter the forest.
4. Snow While has meet a strangely dressed character.
5. The hour is growing late.
6. Snow White is carrying a stiletto.

The facts in a problem are like words you enter in a search engine. They limit the possibilities. The more words you enter the smaller the search window becomes. That is good in the sense that it takes a large number and reduces it into a more manageable number of outcomes…the more the problem is limited or constrained the smaller the number gets.

Dating sites use this principle. A person enters criteria of the person they are looking for. In a social problem these become facts, arbitrary, but facts none the less. For example lets say a woman is lonely and defines her problem thus. "I need to find the ideal candidate to spend my life with." She enters the following criteria (facts). My ideal companion would be someone who....

1. Is male
2. Six foot tall
3. Has a college education
4. Is employed.

Assume for the purposes of discussion that there are a thousand candidates in the data base of the dating service. What these facts/constraints/criteria begin to do is start winnowing away at the number.

1. The first, the sex of the companion, reduces the field by fifty percent. There are now 500 candidates left.
2. The height criteria say knocks off say eighty percent. There are now 100 candidates left.
3. The education criteria knocks off say fifty percent. We are down to fifty candidates.
4. Finally there is the employment requirement…assuming ten percent employment and there are 45 that still qualify.

What the social problem solver needs to realize is that the more facts one can gather the smaller the possibilities become…the more constraints one applies to a problem the fewer the choices, the more criteria we limit our choices with, the fewer the outcomes.

What is happening is that we are building a corral around our problem. Every time you add a new fence line the number of broncos that can fit inside is reduced. Think of it as a window. In this case, using the criteria above, the sill is the sex, the sides are the height and education and the cornice is the employment criteria.

The solution will lie inside the box. Everything outside the box will be excluded. This has profound implications in our everyday lives as Finnley’s poem will show.