Problem solving versus solution generating

During the cold war and the space race back in the 60's, the US was faced with a major problem. The astronaut needed a 

pen that would write in the vacuum of space. NASA went to work. At a cost of $1.5 million in R&D costs 

they developed the "Astronaut Pen".  Some of you may remember. It enjoyed minor success on the commercial market.



They needed a way to record information and take notes in spaces. 

Ofcourse, without gravity a pen doesn't work. And there were no laptops 

or PDA's back then.





Inorder to solve this they invested hundreds of millions into designing a zero-gravity pen.



The Russians were faced with the same dilemma.



They used a pencil.



You don't always have to solve the problem, sometimes its smarter to simply concentrate on finding the solution.