Captain Marko Ramius & The Buffalo
Problem Solving at the Basic & Nuclear Level
Sir Sean Connery must be turning in his grave now.
Anyone who watched The Hunt for Red October would have been captivated by the character portrayal by Sir Sean Connery, who brings out the power, confidence, courage and defiance of the character, who at his heart, refuses to accept defeat in the face of great odds.
What does this have to do with a buffalo, you ask?
The Buffalo
Well, a couple of days ago, a dear friend of mine told me something interesting about buffalos. Do you know, he said, that when it rains, most animals, and of course humans, run in the opposite direction, trying to avoid the rain, whilst the buffalo actually runs towards it?
Why? Alright perhaps it is because they actually enjoy the rain…
However, the outcome of this is that the buffalo actually spends the least time in the rain, as it moves towards it and then passes it by, on its way ahead.
(Scientifically correct or no, just take the point I am trying to make)
What others perceive as a:
Problem
Inconvenience
Potential Obstacle
they actively spend energy trying to avoid, whereas the buffalo tackles it head on and spends the least amount of time and energy while going through it.
The Captain
Yes, Captain Ramius? Wassup with that?
Well for those who remember the film, there is a scene where an enemy submarine hunts down (duh!) Ramius’s submarine, and while trying to take each other down, the enemy launches a torpedo that is dead-on target and a sure hit on the Red October.
The enemy found a way and launches an unavoidable and fatal torpedo. All Ramius and his men have to do, is wait for certain death.
However, always looking for a way forward, and perhaps remembering buffalos in his homeland farms, Ramius orders his ship to increase speed and hurtle towards the torpedo, at top speed! Talk about balls and a desire to take every challenge on! Mutually Assured Destruction at its most gutsy!
Seemingly a suicidal move, his submarine does exactly this and minimizes the distance and time between themselves and the torpedo and the imminent collision. As the music blares and we wait with bated breath for the explosion that will bring the Red October down, the torpedo hits!
But…upon collision, the projectile breaks apart like a rain drop on a duck’s back. Poof! What just happened?
The Art of Problem Solving
It turns out that although the torpedo was fired (Problem Level 1), it required a certain amount of time to actually arm itself to be an effective bomb (Problem Level 2).
Therefore, by actually moving towards it (Problem Solver Level 1), Ramius managed to nullify the missile by not allowing it to arm itself (Problem Solver Level 2) and therefore what was a sure-fire death, turned into nothing.
What he did, was like the buffalo:
- He approached the problem and in doing so, minimized the impact. He determined that there was no way to avoid it, so the only way through it, was THROUGH it.
- He broke the situation down into parts — he chunked it down in his mind and took action in steps. He did not waste his energy trying to avoid the problem.
What We Do, and Should Do
In our lives, we typically do this.
In avoiding a problem or an obstacle, we actually waste our energy in negative thought, anxiety, anticipation and depression. The issue is going to get to us anyway, but due to fear, we feel that we can effectively avoid it and it will disappear, not realizing that we are then actually living two problems instead of one.
So we have to learn from an animal and a nuclear submarine captain, that we must try to at first identify the issue correctly and not overstate it in our minds.
Then we have to break it down into levels, so that it is easier for us to approach and propose solutions at each level, thereby preventing it from overwhelming us.
Finally, we must resolutely meet it head on, in our best capacity, whatever that may be.
We should not feel the pressure, that we must necessarily solve the problem. That takes many parts which are not all under our control.
We must be satisfied that we have taken the correct steps within out control, and then let the chips fall where they may.
All things being equal, a solution appears, and all stakeholders can find a way to move ahead. Life finds a way….
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Thanks for reading!
