I had the pleasure of sharing the stage with Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, on two occasions. We even had a chance to hang out one evening.
One of my favorite ideas from his writing is the number 42.
In The Hitchhiker’s Guide, a supercomputer named Deep Thought spends 7.5 million years calculating the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything.
The answer?
42.
There’s just one problem. Nobody knows what question 42 actually answers.
I’ve always loved the absurdity of this story. But there’s also an important lesson. We do something similar in business all the time. We spend enormous amounts of time, money, and energy searching for solutions without questioning whether we’re solving the right problem.
And now, with AI, we can generate answers faster than ever. But faster answers to the wrong questions just help us solve the wrong problems faster.
In my book Invisible Solutions, I explore how reframing problems can reveal solutions we couldn’t see before.
And perhaps that’s the real lesson of 42.
Before investing 7.5 million years searching for an answer, make sure you understand the question.
Otherwise, you might end up with another 42, with absolutely no idea what to do with it.