Science Puzzle
The Elevator Tool
A builder needs to lift a heavy bucket of wet cement to the top of a three-storey scaffold. He is standing at the bottom trying to figure out how to carry it up the ladder without spilling it or straining himself.
He has rope, a pulley already fitted at the top of the scaffold, and a colleague waiting at the top. What is the obvious solution he is overlooking?
The Answer
He already has everything he needs. Tie the rope to the bucket, thread it through the pulley at the top, and have the colleague pull from above while the builder steadies the bucket from below.
The pulley was fitted to the scaffold for exactly this purpose. The builder has been so focused on the problem of carrying the bucket himself that he has not stepped back to see the system already in place around him.
This is functional fixedness in reverse: instead of being unable to see a new use for a known tool, he is unable to see a known use for a tool that is sitting right there. The solution requires noticing what already exists, not inventing something new.
The principle: Overcoming functional fixedness. Sometimes the solution is already present in the environment. The mental block is not a lack of resources but a failure to recognise the resources that are already available.