I like coffee. On a wintry sunny Saturday, I walked into a familiar coffee shop and ordered a small brewed coffee. The barista asked, "Do you want light or dark roast?" "Would you like cream and sugar in there?" (due to the COVID-19, most coffee shops removed their self-service stations). "Dark roast." I replied, "A little cream. No sugar." She poured in "a little" cream in her judgment and served the coffee. I sipped on it. Ugh...it's too creamy. The ratio was not right. Nonetheless, I signed the credit card receipt with added 10% tips.
Now, if that was you, would you dump or drink it? We are not talking Folgers or any other low-quality coffee. We are talking a reasonably OK quality coffee. Half-and-half cream.
My inspiration for this blog came from this trivial experience. Suppose you break down the interaction between the barista and customer (me). In that case, you will notice the entire process encircled a classic pattern of problem-solving: (1) Given a problem: order came in; (2) Gather info: asked questions; (3) Do some work: poured coffee into a cup; (4) Exercise judgment: topped up with cream; (5) Deliver the result: served the coffee, and finally, (6) Evaluate: paid tips.
"GGDEDE!" Whatever meaning is it. Cool! I started this blog to share some penny-ante experiences and knowledge in my field of work, which requires me to put on my problem-solving hat and exercise engineering judgments all the time.
I went on with the coffee. Just because I didn't care, and I just wanted my first coffee of the day.
