Short Bowel Syndrome

A Short Reading on Problem Solving

On August 4^th, 2003, right before the start of school that year, I ran across an interesting article highlihgted on the firt page of the New York Times: Brainstorm to Breakthrough: A Surgical Procedure is Born. Since then, I have introduced and discussed this article during my first few lectures (I primarily teach freshmen) every semester. The article discusses the history of a simple operation for treating "Short Bowel Syndrome."

It comprises many interesting educational themes that resonate with me:

Simplicity vs. Complexity.
The difficulty for unorthodox ideas to find acceptance by authority ([Students]are not here to worship what is known, but to question it -Jacob Bronowski).
Questions vs. Answers -or how asking a better question leads to a better answer. The name "Short Bowel Syndrome" itself implies that the question that must be answered is, "How can we make the bowel longer." By recasting the problem into more general terms, admitting to different kinds of questions, Dr. Kim was able to explore radically different -and better- kinds of solutions.

The article is of moderate size, but easy to read. It illustrates a common pattern: first an idea is dismissed; eventually it is seriously examined; finally it is thought obvious -and no one can understand why it wasn't discovered sooner. By observing this pattern we might be able to avoid it -although as humans, the odds are against us.