Problem-solving cycle ​

At the most basic level, we can talk about a deficit, insufficiency of something. Deficit causes a feeling of dissatisfaction with a particular force. If the feeling is weak, it may not be consciously recognized at all: too weak signals are sent, they do not pass the "sensitivity threshold." You may get used to the noise in some activity and not be irritated about it. For example, if you deal with psychology, it is pointless to be annoyed by ontological noise: as long as there is no unified set of concepts in psychology as a discipline, problems even arise with individual concepts. For example, "memory" can simultaneously be considered as the process of memorizing and extracting information, as a data store, and as a mechanism that ensures memorization and information retrieval. This happens often, and it makes no sense to be annoyed about it.

Another deficit may give stronger signals that cross the threshold and start pointing to consciousness: "there is discomfort, which means there is a problem, pay attention and get rid of it." For example, if teams cannot report on what they spent a significant portion of the budget on and write unclear reports, a good financial manager will almost certainly react to the noise and allocate resources to address the problem indicated by the noise.

Signals that are strong enough can be processed "in the background" for a while, monitoring the state of objects. If the problem continues to interfere and its impact grows, the signals become strong, understanding is formed that the problem needs to be solved, and avoiding it will not be possible. Some name, language of description is chosen for the problem, and the search for an affordance or an object to satisfy the deficit (problem) is initiated. Objects or sets of objects that solve problems can be completely different. For example, if a person suffers from not having "popularity," they can choose various strategies to achieve it: appear in a news release once, gain popularity on social networks, invent a cure for cancer. The objects found to help solve the problem are different in each strategy. The choice will be purely personal and largely dictated by personal inclinations, preferences, existing "assets," such as expertise. Similarly, different people choose different exocortex: there is no one universal option that would suit everyone. Some prefer to model in Coda, some in Excel, some on paper. Some practice thinking in writing in Obsidian, some in Notion. The convenient exocortex for operation will be different for different agents.

The search for affordance is chaotic and may proceed "in the background" for less important problems. After finding affordance, a representation of possible solution methods is formed. Here the problem goes through selection again: is it necessary to solve it right now and in this way. If yes, resources are allocated to solve it. After the choice, we can talk about describing the solution strategy, action plan (operational-tactical), plan implementation, and monitoring.

The initial part of the cycle, which is related to the emergence of deficits and inclinations, passes unconsciously. We cannot interfere with the emergence of inclinations, but thanks to the controlling circuit S2, we can choose socially acceptable forms of their implementation. For example, becoming known not by committing crimes, but by inventing a cure for cancer. We can also make conscious choices: choose in which problems to invest resources in solving. Also, consciously, with the help of S2, it is desirable to monitor the problem-solving process. This will help solve them faster and better.