# Child-like ways to solve real world problems. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 10, 2009, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-like-ways-to-solve-real-world-problems/480689 "2009-01-10T17:44:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-like-ways-to-solve-real-world-problems/480689/1 "2009-01-10T17:44:57Z")
If I were 10 this would be my idea for solving the Palestine/Israel conflict… “Just run a competition to find the ten cleverest people in the world, give them a month to do some research, then put them in a room and tell them to work out how to solve the conflict. And they’re not to come out until they’ve worked out how to solve it” I know, naive in so many ways. What other ways can big problems be solved by small-person ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-like-ways-to-solve-real-world-problems/480689/2 "2009-01-10T18:35:57Z")
Child-like? I’ve heard similar ideas from politicians. Presidential candidates, even. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-like-ways-to-solve-real-world-problems/480689/3 "2009-01-10T19:29:24Z")
I firmly believe that the world would be a better place if all conflicts were decided by a three-out-of-five match of Rock-Paper-Scissors… ---
**Author:** ![ASAKMOTSD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/919ad9/32.png) [@ASAKMOTSD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASAKMOTSD)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-like-ways-to-solve-real-world-problems/480689/4 "2009-01-10T19:44:17Z")
It sounds like the varying ways that the US & USSR came up with solutions to space-related issues. One was finding a pen that could write in zero G. US spent tons of money to eventually come up with [this](http://www.spacepen.com/chromebullet.aspx). USSR figured out that they could just use [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pencil). Sometimes the solution is not to make it complex. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/57b2e6/32.png) [@Quasimodal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodal)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-like-ways-to-solve-real-world-problems/480689/5 "2009-01-10T19:46:17Z")
All nations, Risk, winner take all. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-like-ways-to-solve-real-world-problems/480689/6 "2009-01-10T19:50:42Z")
> [@ASAKMOTSD](#): > > It sounds like the varying ways that the US & USSR came up with solutions to space-related issues. One was finding a pen that could write in zero G. US spent tons of money to eventually come up with [this](http://www.spacepen.com/chromebullet.aspx). USSR figured out that they could just use [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pencil). Sometimes the solution is not to make it complex. Obligatory snopes link, one of the first I ever replied to an email with: [NASA's 'Astronaut Pen' | Snopes.com](http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp) Synopsis, BOTH sides used pencils, they do have liabilities versus the space pen, (and advantages,) and the USA was just stubborn enough to be not satisfied with the existing tool and work out something more complicated. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-like-ways-to-solve-real-world-problems/480689/7 "2009-01-10T19:58:47Z")
That was like an idea from Ted Baxter from the _Mary Tyler Moore_ show. He suggest, American take it’s toughest guy, Russia take it’s toughest guy and China take it’s toughest guy and they slug it out in the ring, winner take all. Then there was the editoral on Saturday Night Live which suggest putting only women in the military. That way if we win fine, and if we lose we could say “Big deal you BIG MEN, beat up a bunch of women.” ---
**Author:** ![bink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/439d5e/32.png) [@bink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bink)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-like-ways-to-solve-real-world-problems/480689/8 "2009-01-10T20:00:50Z")
I think they should do the old splitting-a-brownie-or-whatever trick: one cuts it in half, the other one gets to pick which half they want. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-like-ways-to-solve-real-world-problems/480689/9 "2009-01-10T20:24:07Z")
Yeah I think the rock-paper-scissors thing or **bink** ’s “brownie solution” would totally fix things in Israel. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-like-ways-to-solve-real-world-problems/480689/10 "2009-01-10T20:26:10Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > That was like an idea from Ted Baxter from the _Mary Tyler Moore_ show. > > He suggest, American take it’s toughest guy, Russia take it’s toughest guy and China take it’s toughest guy and they slug it out in the ring, winner take all. > > Then there was the editoral on Saturday Night Live which suggest putting only women in the military. That way if we win fine, and if we lose we could say “Big deal you BIG MEN, beat up a bunch of women.” Or, as someone else once proposed, the leaders of each group should fight it out, armed only with sockfuls of shit. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-like-ways-to-solve-real-world-problems/480689/11 "2009-01-10T20:27:31Z")
Problem: feeding everyone in the world. Solution: give everyone a good meal. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-like-ways-to-solve-real-world-problems/480689/12 "2009-01-10T20:58:30Z")
People with too much money should give it to people with not enough money. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-like-ways-to-solve-real-world-problems/480689/13 "2009-01-10T21:03:10Z")
> [@chrisk](#): > > > [@ASAKMOTSD](#): > > > > It sounds like the varying ways that the US & USSR came up with solutions to space-related issues. One was finding a pen that could write in zero G. US spent tons of money to eventually come up with [this](http://www.spacepen.com/chromebullet.aspx). USSR figured out that they could just use [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pencil). Sometimes the solution is not to make it complex. > > Obligatory snopes link, one of the first I ever replied to an email with: [NASA's 'Astronaut Pen' | Snopes.com](http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp) > > Synopsis, BOTH sides used pencils, they do have liabilities versus the space pen, (and advantages,) and the USA was just stubborn enough to be not satisfied with the existing tool and work out something more complicated. 😉 The space pen vs. pencil might not be exactly true, but while the US has spent many years and millions of dollars developing a system that can read handwritten zip codes, the Russians just put scantron-like forms on the front of their envelopes. ---
**Author:** ![Sunshine\_and\_Smiles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Sunshine\_and\_Smiles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunshine_and_Smiles)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-like-ways-to-solve-real-world-problems/480689/14 "2009-01-10T21:03:55Z")
Solution to dealing with nuclear waste: cover with newspapers, walk away. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-like-ways-to-solve-real-world-problems/480689/15 "2009-01-10T21:08:58Z")
> [@Sunshine\_and\_Smiles](#): > > Solution to dealing with nuclear waste: cover with newspapers, walk away. No. Cram it all under the bed so it will look like it’s been tidied up. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-like-ways-to-solve-real-world-problems/480689/16 "2009-01-10T22:02:55Z")
Famous brainbox Edward De Bono suggested sending large quantities of Marmite to the middle east, believing that the aggression in that area is being exacerbated by vitamin and mineral deficiencies that would be remedied by the stuff. Trouble is, even if it worked, that would just enrol the subjects into a brand new, and equally polarised dispute - love Marmite or hate it. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-like-ways-to-solve-real-world-problems/480689/17 "2009-01-10T22:04:34Z")
> [@Captain\_Carrot](#): > > Problem: feeding everyone in the world. > Solution: give everyone a good meal. That’s like saying you could clothe the naked by giving them clothes. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-like-ways-to-solve-real-world-problems/480689/18 "2009-01-10T22:06:51Z")
> [@Rysto](#): > > That’s like saying you could clothe the naked by giving them clothes. And? ---
**Author:** ![Jettboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85e7bf/32.png) [@Jettboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jettboy)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-like-ways-to-solve-real-world-problems/480689/19 "2009-01-10T22:13:06Z")
The next Israeli/Palestinian peace conference should have milk and lots of pie available. You just can’t fight when there’s _pie_ around, man. ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-like-ways-to-solve-real-world-problems/480689/20 "2009-01-10T22:39:59Z")
I think the ten cleverest people in the world would have figured out a way not to get a stuck in a room for any amount of time against their will. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-like-ways-to-solve-real-world-problems/480689.md?page=2)