The Red Herring Fallacy

Sometimes there comes a chance when you get this perfect idea in your head and that is the answer to all your problems and guess what! It looks good as well. It is the well rounded, gift wrapped in a perfect bow.

But once you start applying the idea… Horror! No matter what you do it just won’t fit. First you try to make small changes to your design, then slowly but believe me, surely you start changing the whole design itself and finally end up with a half-baked design with the room size of a kennel.

The idea ruined your whole design and ended you in a road block!

Of course I speak by experience. Today I was given something I had been trying to do since I came here. Designing a whole house from scratch but by the end of the day I was not able to come up with anything substantial.

What was the problem? I wondered. It should be easy! Right? I worked hard! According to usual norms, I should have succeeded but meh!

It was later I realized it wasn’t that I didn’t work hard, or I was out of ideas. On the contrary I had an idea. Of a beautiful water body and an inner courtyard. But that was it. I was too stuck in the idea that my vision funneled and I cared less about the requirements.

The phenomena is called Red Herring. The saying ‘red herring' is used to describe something that provides a false or misleading clue.

You get trapped in your own thinking. You are so engrossed in one idea you fail to see other much better options.

If you are stuck in such a pickle. Worry not. There are a few things you could do. Change your mind. Move on. Ask questions to yourself “What if…?”, and adopt a different perspective. Pause. Breath. 

Don’t be too stuck in a thought. Discuss with your colleagues and ask for their opinions. Maybe you will end up with a better idea! If an idea is posing more of a problem than a solution then it is probably not worth it. So go on search for other avenues.

Stay Inspire~