Did you ever solve a problem that you once thought had no solution?

Yes.

You know that rhetorical question that people like to ask? The one about why kamikaze pilots wear helmets?

Yeah, I figured that one out in a high school class once and blew my teacher’s (and my own) mind. It’s about efficiency. If kamikaze pilots bump their heads and crash land on the way to their target, they can’t hit it, can they? And therefore, they are a less efficient or useful, tactically. Checkmate, teacher.

Quite a number of times, actually.

Two.

I thought for the longest time that I was going to hell because I was gay. I didn’t know any better. I was raised that way, attending a fundamentalist Christian church three times each week. It led me to drink and abuse alcohol. I married a woman and had a family thinking it would make me straight and save me from hell fire. The personal fire inside my head became greater than the fear of dying and going to hell, so I stopped living the lie and came out of the closet. Coming out is a process that took many years for me, but today, I’m happy and free. Also, my children love their gay dad.

Drinking excessively and abusing alcohol took me down a long path of great self-hatred. I believed that once I could accept my sexuality, I would be able to quit drinking. It didn’t work that way for me. I had to come to terms with my addiction. I had to take responsibility for it and work on it. After 12 years without a drink, I can say I love me. I’m not ashamed any more. Quitting drinking is something I’m enormously grateful for. It’s a gift.

At least once a day.

Sorry for the ambiguous details. Just something personal I didn’t want something out there on the internet.

Not yet.

Amazing thing. My husband quit being a prick the second I quit nagging him.

Yes. I used to think that certain paradoxes didn’t have solutions until I found them. A few other philosophical problems come to mind as well.

Not that I can think of but I do have solutions that I am looking for problems to solve.

Triaxium Theorem is said to only be solved with a formula with the same number of functions as the original number, I found a way to do it in four steps, no matter the size of the original number.

I don’t ever see problems as having ‘no’ solution. The solutions might be options I don’t want to consider or take yet, but there is always a solution. In cases where I am vacillating about what to do, I find letting some time pass helps. I think we usually know what we need to do we just have to let the idea settle and on occasions, build up the courage to take the step. In the end either an event will occur that will force my hand OR I will just know I have to act and do.

Listen to your heart/gut and think about what is right for you. When you take out all the ambient noise surrounding the situation (usually caused by us trying to please others), often the path is much clearer.

No. But I have been in impossible situations that resolved themselves by events of chance.

With no details your question reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry and George try to work out a solution to the roommate switch problem. Jerry is dating one woman, later found to be humorless, but wants to go out with her roommate who appreciates his humor. The Perfect Plan

I once thought I was doomed to be miserable (depression and anxiety) for the rest of my life. Happily, that was not the case!

Yes.

I go out for a drive and do my really intense thinking then. I also tend to forget I’m driving and do really stupid stuff. If I don’t kill myself I come up with the answer.

I’d put it this way: I’ve discovered that what I had taken to be a problem never actually was. I don’t get any credit for “solving” the problem; it simply required a new way of seeing. But the problem-ness goes away just the same.

3 for today :D

Every problem has a solution.

@prioritymail In that case, please build me any one of the following objects: [1] – [2] – [3] – [4].

none yet today, but the day is young