Are You Solving a Non-Problem?

Have you ever caught yourself working feverishly to solve what your mind had classified as a problem, only to later discover there was no problem at all?

Well, it just happened with me and caused me to waste a lot of time. Since it is fresh on my mind, I figured I would share the problem with you and what I learned in the process of “solving it.” If you are in a hurry and don’t want the details of the case study, you can skip to the end to examine the lessons learned.

The Case Study: My Non-Problem

A couple of times over the past few weeks, my server has been down for about an hour. That, of course, is an actual problem. The non-problem came from the perspective I put on it. Specifically, rather than acknowledging that almost all servers go down every once in a while, even the most expensive ones, I took those down-times as an indication that I needed to change my web-hosting.

So, I looked at the facts that I knew:

1. The control panel for my server generally shows a server load of 2.00 or more, and frequently as much as 5 or 6 (with an occasional 10 or 11, which is when it usually “crashes.”) From what reading I had done, a server load in excess of 1.0 is bad news. (Turns out I had some misunderstanding … more on this below.)
2. Shared servers, such as the shared server plan I am own, are hosting numerous web sites at once. Hence, if another web site on my server gets the Digg Effect, they could bring the server down for all sites on that server (mine included, of course).
3. My web-hosting provider, Bluehost, actually is one of the top-rated web hosts and has a good reputation, although some people say they have too many sites on each server.

Now, note that items 2 and 3 suggest that my “problem” is not worthy of much of my time. But, item 1 really bothered me. From what I had read on Wikipedia about server load, it seemed to me like my site was on a server that was overloaded. So, recognizing that Bluehost is one of the best shared-server sources, I began to think I need to move my site to a dedicated server.

The minimum cost of moving to a good dedicated server runs about $50 per month, which translates to $600 per year. So now my problem just expanded in scope: before doing this, I first had to answer whether I am serious enough about blogging to spend this kind of money.

Now, bear in mind that I am going to show you later that I was working on a non-problem, yet notice how this “problem” is already expanding in scope.

It gets worse. After I decided that I am committed to blogging (at least until I run out of things to say), then I began looking at whether I could write off any of the expenses of the server under my LLC. This would also mean I would have direct the trivial advertising income I get into the LLC, so that the income and expenses are handled hand-in-hand.

So, this took a good bit of research and time. I also read about how to move from one server to another and backed up all of my data in preparation for the move.

Realizing The Problem Is Not Real

Then, I took another look at the control panel for my server and noticed that the server load is 5, but that the indicator next to it is green, indicating an OK status. I notice that next to the server load it says, in parens, “8 CPUs,” which means the server has 8 processors.

So, I decide to research server load a bit more. The 8 CPUs is key. With 8 processors, a server load of 5 is not that bad. If it were one processor, it would be a disaster. But, that’s not the case.

So, when I realized this, I reconsidered items 2 and 3 above and realized that I am not really justified in moving to a dedicated server. My instincts were telling me that having only 500 to 600 page views per day is not enough to warrant a dedicated server (and the expense thereof). But, I was ignoring my instincts.

The Lessons

I learned a few things from this episode.

• It pays to really understand the data you are dealing with. I had a misunderstanding about what server load meant. There was also some other data that I was misinterpreting, but it’s not worth getting into, except that my misinterpretation of data led me down a path I need not have traveled.
• As we recently discussed, problems can be a good thing. I have been solving problems all of my life, and now that I am retired I really don’t have that many … that creates the perfect environment for the brain to invent problems to solve.
• It is incredibly easy for us to unnecessarily expand the scope of a problem. I suspect we often do this without realizing it.
• It pays to listen to your intuition. It will not always be right, of course, but it is worthy of your attention.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts. And, I hope that if you are working on some non-problems, that this little article will help set you straight.

Tagged as: gtd, planning