What would a politician or banker thinking obliquely have done instead? To understand obliquity requires perceiving that the answer to that question is to present not an alternative solution but an alternative way of thinking. The alternative to rebuilding Paris to Le Corbusierâs crazed design was not to rebuild Paris according to some other grand design, but rather to grasp that Paris would develop, as it had for centuries, through a process of constant adaptation. Most construction survives at most a few generations, but Notre Dame, two centuries in the building, remains magnificent seven hundred years later. The Eiffel Tower, intended as a temporary structure, has been the cityâs most distinctive landmark for over a century. The Gare dâOrsay regains relevance in an entirely different function as the MusĂ©e dâOrsay. Paris grew by muddling through, Brasilia by design; Paris is a great city, Brasilia is not.
The direct approach to problem solving requires us to know the method of solution before we start.