Einstein is quoted to have said that if he had one hour to save the world he would spend 55 minutes defining the problem and only five minutes finding the solution. The importance of what Einstein advocates does not lie in the precise proportion of time allocation but in the centrality of problem definition to realising optimal solutions. The tendency has arguably been to focus on the solution space at the expense of problem definition, in part because it is easier (which plays to our innate human weakness) and because the solution space has too often provided the rewards and therefore the incentives.
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