When Kids Start Doing Root Cause Analysis
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When Kids Start Doing Root Cause Analysis
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Re: When Kids Start Doing Root Cause Analysis
#2His experience of having trouble answering more than '5 why's' is a nice revelation. This is an exercise that nearly every engineer learns about (that started at Toyota[1]) and has become one of the basic tools used in continuous improvement. I often complete the exercise and it is trouble enough to make it to the 5'th why, the thought actually never occurred to me to go farther.
As a side note - when you are improving things, that 4'th and 5'th 'why' are often things that are very hard (and costly) to change.
Re: When Kids Start Doing Root Cause Analysis
#3It is pretty amazing how far down the rabbit hole you can go in "5 why's".
Louis C.K. does a very funny bit on the topic of the OP (NSFW I think)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJlV49RDlLE&feature=playe...
Re: When Kids Start Doing Root Cause Analysis
#4I have two kids, and the youngest is just starting on the 'why?' phase. Its great fun! I treat it as a game to try and see how long I can keep on answering. As soon as I don't know the answer, I explain that I don't know (or perhaps that nobody yet knows) and discuss how we could find out.
One interesting thing I discovered - a surprisingly large number of things will either lead to physics or human psychology if you keep asking 'why?'. However I don't know if that reflects some deeper truth about the world, or just my bias in how I answer the questions.
Re: When Kids Start Doing Root Cause Analysis
#5I have two kids, and the youngest is just starting on the 'why?' phase. Its great fun! I treat it as a game to try and see how long I can keep on answering. As soon as I don't know the answer, I explain that I don't know (or perhaps that nobody yet knows) and discuss how we could find out. One interesting thing I discovered - a surprisingly large number of things will either lead to physics or human psychology if you…
> However I don't know if that reflects some deeper truth about the world, or just my bias in how I answer the questions.
It's the same reason why you always end up on "Philosophy" if you're browsing Wikipedia and consistently follow the first link in each article. Here's the path for "Airplane":
Airplane
Fixed wing aircraft
Aircraft
Vehicle
Motion (physics)
Natural science
Science
Knowledge /* we know where this going... */
Fact
Proof (truth)
Argument
Philosophy
Re: When Kids Start Doing Root Cause Analysis
#6It is pretty amazing how far down the rabbit hole you can go in "5 why's". Louis C.K. does a very funny bit on the topic of the OP (NSFW I think) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJlV49RDlLE&feature=playe...
That video is the first thing I thought of while reading the article. I wasn't sure if it would get up voted or not, but I'm glad it did, since it does highlight how far you can go when determining the root cause of something.
"... but Why?" "Because some things are and some things are not!"
Re: When Kids Start Doing Root Cause Analysis
#7Dont kids already do this and most annoyed parents eventually answer "because the sky is so high" ....
Re: When Kids Start Doing Root Cause Analysis
#8One of my favorite quotes regarding this is from Michael Crichton in one of his more obscure, autobiographical books called Travels:
"Although knowledge of how things work is sufficient to allow manipulation of nature, what humans really want to know is why things work. Children don't ask how the sky is blue. They ask why the sky is blue."
I recommend the book to anyone and everyone looking to explore their own understanding of the world and their place within it.
Re: When Kids Start Doing Root Cause Analysis
#9It is pretty amazing how far down the rabbit hole you can go in "5 why's". Louis C.K. does a very funny bit on the topic of the OP (NSFW I think) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJlV49RDlLE&feature=playe...
The video is funny, but usually real kids are happy with 2 or 3 chained answers and a "I don't know." Another possible last answer is "Let's look in a book" or the modern version "Let's google that".
After 10 minutes of googling : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5OYH2lDNqU
Re: When Kids Start Doing Root Cause Analysis
#10I have two kids, and the youngest is just starting on the 'why?' phase. Its great fun! I treat it as a game to try and see how long I can keep on answering. As soon as I don't know the answer, I explain that I don't know (or perhaps that nobody yet knows) and discuss how we could find out. One interesting thing I discovered - a surprisingly large number of things will either lead to physics or human psychology if you…
I think it is more revealing of your answers: for anything but the human ones, you take a materialistic approach, which eventually boils down to physics.
Same principle for human matters, except we don't know yet how to close the gap between psychology and physics. Plus, you may be content with psychology if you believe there's some "magic" (like immaterial souls) between the two.