Deciding what to eat for dinner

Deciding between two people what to eat for dinner can seem like a trivial task. And yet, discussions often lead to frustration over different priorities and perspectives. At that point, it makes sense to take a step back and explore what other options you might have to address your current dilemma.

Complex problems are often vague, and that means they have many possible solutions. Following the Meta-Problem Method may lead you to a distant dilemma from the one that started your quest. A key part of the method's value is that it forces you to clarify what you really want and what you are willing to give up. It also enables you to compare objectively the possible pathways and their trade-offs. It prevents you locking into solutions mode too early, and then doubling down on solving a low-yield problem that does not serve your goals as well as the alternatives. At the end of this process, you will have a better understanding of your priorities and how to achieve them.

Step in the Meta-Problem Method	Illustrative Example
Dilemma The high-level issue you are trying to address	What should we eat for dinner?
Goal The changes you would like to make to address the dilemma. There are usually many options. Selecting the best set comes after you learn what is possible.	Supporting Goals Nutrition Cost Taste Time required to make and eat the food Usage of available ingredients
Problem Space While goals tell us what we want, our next step is to understand what is holding us back from making progress on them. This approach is borrowed from calculus as we explore the neighborhood of the current dilemma.	For each goal that you are considering, ask yourself: How much progress is possible? How much effort would it take to make progress? What methods might help to make progress? What might the positive or negative effects be on the other goals as you make progress towards the current one? Example Problems: What is something healthy that we could eat?  For example, maybe the healthiest thing you eat routinely is a restaurant burrito bowl, but you having tried making one at home before. What is the cheapest food we could eat? What's just a little bit cheaper than our normal options?  For example, maybe some days you just eat cereal with some fruit. This can provide some insight into what a cheap dinner might look like. What is the tastiest dinner we could eat? Do we agree at all, or are our preferences very different?  For example, maybe both people agree that Chinese takeout is one of the tastiest options, but only one person likes Indian takeout. What is the fastest option for dinner?  For example, cooking some meals is quicker than waiting for a restaurant if you are very hungry. Other options may take much longer to prepare at home, especially when you account for potentially missing ingredients. Which dinner options will use up the right groceries?  For example, if you have the ingredients for a fancy salad in your fridge, it might be the right time to eat them while they are fresh.
High-Yield Problems Sometimes solving one problem helps make progress towards several goals. In this step, we identify these “two-for-the-price-of-one” problems.	Which Options Will Advance More Than One Goal? Learning to make burrito bowls could be a relatively healthy, tasty, and cheap option for dinner. Take-out Chinese food may be tasty and fast. Using up things that will go bad soon is cheap (the food is already paid for) and also could be healthy, tasty, and quick - depending on what groceries you have. Meal prepping or batch cooking may be a great long-term way to improve the health, cost, and time needs of your dinners. If you enjoy cooking, the time spent may be more like hobby time and should be included as an additional supporting goal.  Et cetera.
Problem Selection Which of the many possible options in the high-yield problem step is the best set to address the dilemma?	Selection Criteria Which solutions will best address the dilemma? Which solutions will deliver the best outcome for the least amount of time, effort and money? Which solutions is the student most excited to take on? By this point in the meta-problem process, you have clarified your goals, identified some options you could take, weighed the trade-offs that come with each of those options, rejected some options because they will take more time, effort or money than the results are worth, and you have identified a set of high-yield problems that will advance several of your goals at once. Now you are ready to start solving a problem knowing what you expect to achieve.
Implement, Learn and Adapt	Observe and learn as you go. New information may reveal itself as you implement your chosen solution, so check continuously that you’re still solving the right problem.