Problem swapping

Cinderella had the problem of being an unpaid servant, and in effect a slave while working for her wicked stepmother and ugly sisters. She solved the problem by marrying the Prince. It was not the best solution, because although it got her out of the stepmother's house, she had to accept the Prince on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. It might not have turned out 'happy ever after', and if not, where would she go then? She might well have exchanged the problem of being a poor slave for being a rich one.

A better solution would have been her Fairy Godmother giving Cinderella a lot of money so that she could have been independent, and then looked around for someone she loved on her own terms.

James Bond has a low boredom threshold, so needs fast cars, flighty ladies, gambling, and danger for stimulus. He exchanged his boredom problem for excitement. Sherlock Holmes also requires excitement to get over his boredom. But the excitement for both of them comes at the cost of danger, and that is another problem.

Oliver Twist's problem is being an orphan who is hungry all the time. He solves the hunger problem by joining with a gang of thieves, but then has the problem of becoming a criminal.

Robinson Crusoe solves the problem of staying alive on an island, but then has the problem of fighting off the hostile islanders.

Hansel and Gretel are left in the woods to die, but are saved from starvation by the wicked witch who wants to fatten them up to eat.

The difficulty in solving our problems is that we are often dependent on others to help us solve them, and that will usually come at a cost. Again, we may often see the problem in the wrong context, and though we may think we have solved it, we may simply have changed its form, and is still with us.

A person may think that having a car will save them time travelling. They get a car. It does save them time travelling, but paying for the car and looking after it takes time and money, and though savings have been made on actual travelling, time is lost in looking after the car.

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