© 2011, Small Wars Foundation March 11, 2011
To Design or Not to Design (Part Two):
The There Is a Problem with the Word ‘Problem;’ How Unique
Vocabulary Is Essential to Conceptual Planning
by Ben Zweibelson
Editor’s Note: This is part two of a six part series on design. Part one can be found here.
Costello: “Well then who's on first?”
Abbott: “Yes.”
Costello: “I mean the fellow's name.”
Abbott: “Who.”
Costello: “The guy on first.”
Abbott: “Who.”
Costello: “The first baseman.”
Abbott: “Who.”
Costello: “The guy playing...”
Abbott: “Who is on first!”
Costello: “I'm asking YOU who's on first.”
Abbott: “That's the man's name.”
FM5-0 Chapter 3 Design discusses a critical component to conceptual planning and
phrases it with “solving the right problem.”
However, military doctrine and institutional culture
already employ the word problem for an entirely different and valid reason. Should one ask any
tactical-level member of a military unit what their understanding of the word problem is in a
military setting, the majority will explain to you that a problem is „something one solves.‟
The
existing word meaning uses a short-term or tactical perspective that is divorced from the larger
context in which design theory provides understanding on metaphysical processes. These
processes exceed the artificial boundaries imposed by the military institution‟s valid definition of
a tactical problem; the perspectives do not match.
Language is something usually taken for granted except for under reflection or
metacognition. “Linguistic expressions are containers for meanings [and these] meanings have
Excerpt of classic exchange between comedians Bud Abbott and Lou Costello (http://www.baseball-
almanac.com/humor4.shtml) last accessed 28 December 2010.
United States Army Training and Doctrine Command, Field Manual 5-0; The Operations Process. (Headquarters, Department
of the Army, 2010), 3-26.
Gerald M. Weinberg, Rethinking Systems Analysis and Design (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1982) 10. “Looking
carefully at these and related definitions, we discern that the „problems,‟ in the sense of „perplexities,‟ may be said to be „solved‟
if the obscurity is removed.” Weinberg refers to this as the „problem-solution myth;” Jeff Conklin, Wicked Problems and Social
Complexity (CogNexus Institute, 2008. http://cognexus.org/wpf/wickedproblems.pdf Last accessed 05 January 2011) 7.
“Moreover, what „the Problem‟ is depends on who you ask- different stakeholders have different views about what the problem is
and what constitutes an acceptable solution.”
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