Elementary, dear Watson...Well, Not Quite

There's a Sherlock Holmes joke that keeps doing rounds on social media about his camping experience with Dr. Watson. The joke goes as below

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson decide to go on a camping trip. After dinner and a bottle of wine, they lay down for the night, and go to sleep.
Some hours later, Holmes awoke and nudged his faithful friend.
"Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see."
Watson replied, "I see millions of stars."
"What does that tell you?"
Watson pondered for a minute.
"Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets."
"Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo."
"Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three."
"Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful and that we are small and insignificant."
"Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow."
"What does it tell you, Holmes?"
Holmes was silent for a minute, then spoke: "Watson, you idiot. Someone has stolen our tent!"

While you chuckle a little at the joke and marvel at the brilliance of Watson's thinking, you know he has clearly missed the bus.

Unlike Holmes, we too tend to miss the simple and evident things in front of us, to base our observations on. There is inherent tendency in us that tends to look at problems with solutions that we have. The Watson in us takes over, bringing in a somewhat philosophical approach which though, tries to address the problem does little to hit the nail on its head.

Worth a thought then to introspect whether we over analyze, get trapped in the poetic possibilities and try finding a problem for the solutions we have or just say, "Elementary, dear Watson."

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