The general behavior of problem solvers is to use existing knowledge in solving a current problem. This often leads to solutions not nearly as powerful as those resulting from applying new knowledge to the problem. Mastering the learning process not only includes both knowing when you know, but also knowing when you don’t know, thus triggering the need for new learning. In your professional life and practice, you are expected to validate your use of knowledge (including seeking or creating new knowledge) in solving real world problems

Every time someone questions the quality of your work because you didn’t validate its quality or solution at the level of other people’s expectations, your value and future opportunities for advancement are significantly jeopardized. Whether this is because you don’t know how to validate your problem solution, or because you don’t validate your work doesn’t make any difference.

Not only are you responsible for seeing the opportunities for your own learning, but also for seeing others’ learning needs. When you use others’ problem solutions, your inability to catch their errors will cause you to propagate errors and will reflect negatively on you.

The prominence and importance of validation in the problem solving process is clear if we examine an expanded version of this process.