From the carving of the first stone, humankind has always used the same approach to problems solving or decision making: a three steps process:
1 - grasp the knowledge involved in the problem
2 - understand of all the aspects of the problem
3 - make a decision, take action
Any progress is happening through iterations of those three steps: know, understand, decide.
In technological terms, the three steps translate to:
MODEL - ANALYSE - OPTIMISE