terminal
| ˈtəːmɪnl |
(of a disease) predicted to lead to death, especially slowly; incurable.
misdiagnosis
| ˌmɪsdʌɪəɡˈnəʊsɪs |
an incorrect diagnosis of an illness or other problem.
terminal misdiagnosis
| ˈtəːmɪnl ˌmɪsdʌɪəɡˈnəʊsɪs |
an incorrect diagnosis of an illness or other problem that will lead one to death, slowly - yet not incurable.
Time and time again, I find myself face-to-face with this oh-so fundamental tenet of being human. When faced with a problem, the first act to solving it is always analysis - and as humans, we tend to have a predisposition to always wanting to solve whatever problem pops up in front of us, before even taking a moment to ask about the value of the so-called problem, or in the rare cases that we do, doing such a horrible job at our analysis that it leaves us with a irrevocably mistaken conception of what the problem even is.
It has happened to me a lot - a hurried analysis results in a flawed understanding of a problem that then results in lots of wasted effort.
Terminal misdiagnosis stems from a lacking understanding of the problem, as well a desire to solve it in whatever way one can, leading to a knee-jerk assignment of a value to a problem. To be completely honest, it could stem from a myriad of things however - disinterest in getting to the root of a problem, assumptions, excessive utilization of heuristics - the causes are endless, but the outcome is one - terminal misdiagnosis.
The solution, although I am not sure if this can be called as such just yet for I have not implemented it myself, is first principles thinking.
Building up everything from complete scratch, and throwing all errors for whom assumptions and heuristics are the cause out the window.
As to avoid the problem of terminal misdiagnosis when it comes to utilizing and formulating the principles themselves - that, I think, requires honing of the self, and a steadfast dedication to meditation.
I will continue to document instances of terminal misdiagnosis both in my daily life and int eh works of others, and I will continue to expound on this concept when I get the time, for it is seemingly ever-present.