Going Back to go Forward

There are many times when the past holds answers to our problems.  A small example of this is researchers using hair animation software to analyze the behavior of cables.  When confronted with a problem there is often pressure to come up with a brand new solution.  The struggle to find that solution can be very frustrating when it yields no usable results.  At times this frustration can be alleviated by looking at what has already been discovered.  It is surprising how many times a problem that has already been solved is very similar to ours.  Many times we have to look at solutions outside of our current discipline that can be applied to the problem at hand.  In order to truly find answers we may have to think more critically than creatively, not using creativity to come up with a new solution but to analyze old and seemingly unrelated solutions that apply to our problems.