Prelude to an upcoming post

I think I'm going to do a post on mis-specification of problems as it relates to politics. As a bit of preparation, here's you some homework you can do before the main post is written. If you do the homework, I think you'll find it much easier to understand what I'll be getting at in that post.

A gentleman named James L. Adams wrote, some time back, an excellent book called Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas. I highly recommend it, and much of what I'll be trying to express in the post with respect to politics, Adams has dealt with at length in the much wider universe of human problem-solving in general.

Conceptual Blockbusting starts with the following puzzle. Your homework: see if you can solve the puzzle. Make a note of how long you worked on it and what method you used to try to solve it.

One morning, exactly at sunrise, a Buddhist monk began to climb a tall mountain. A narrow path, no more than a foot or two wide, spiraled around the mountain to a glittering temple at the summit. The monk ascended at varying rates of speed, stopping many times along the way to rest and eat dried fruit he carried with him. He reached the temple shortly before sunset. After several days of fasting and meditation he began his journey back along the same path, starting at sunrise and again walking at variable speeds with many pauses along the way. His average speed descending was, of course, greater than his average climbing speed. Prove that there is a spot along the path that the monk will occupy on both trips at precisely the same time of day.

Good luck!