A known solution that works blocks the search for a better one.
Luchins's 1942 water-jar experiments: subjects taught a three-step solution kept using it on problems solvable in one step, and some declared the simple problems impossible.
In practice
- A team that solved a data problem with a nightly batch job builds four more batch jobs, and never considers streaming.
- A doctor who has diagnosed the same presentation correctly forty times misses the forty-first, which presents identically and is not.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Creativity & Work
- Essay
- What gets in the way of good work