"By three methods we may learn wisdom:
First, by reflection, which is noblest;
Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and
third by experience, which is the bitterest."
<look up this quote>
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Polybius, 1979, p.80
“ I have recorded those events in the hope that the readers
of this history may profit from them, for there are two ways
by which all men may reform themselves, either by learning
from their own errors or from those of others, the former
makes a more striking demonstration, the latter a less painful
one. For this reason we should never, if we can avoid it,
choose the first, since it involves great dangers as well as
great pain, but always the seconds, since it reveals
the best course without causing us harm.
From this I conclude that the best education for
the situation of actual life consists of the experience
we acquire from the study of serious history.
For it is history alone which without causing us harm
enables us to judge what is best course in any situation or
circumstance. ”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybius
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• not a rigid road map but principles of navigation
p.33 (pdf 38)
This work is principally social and organizational.
p.33 (pdf 38)
Navigating. Michel Serres' wonderful metaphors of the Northwest Passage is evocative (Serres 1980).
p.33 (pdf 38)
The point, he says, is that the Northwest Passage is ever changing: shifting ice floes mean that last year's route will never be the same as the current one. What we need to teach, then, is not a rigid road map but principles of navigation. There is no one way to design cyber infrastructure, but there are tools we can teach the designers to help them appreciate the true size of the solution space ─ which is often much larger than they may think, if they are tied into technical fixes for all problems.
pp.7-9 (pdf 12-15)
II Dynamics
“Wizard,” “maestro,” and “leader” label roles, not people; they may be held by individuals, groups, or organizations, as well as in various combinations. Our emphasis here is not on heroic individuals — whose powers and importance are almost always exaggerated — but on the social features of this pattern. First, system building typically begins as a social act (even a dyad is a social system). Second, the wizard-maestro leader combination reflects the spectrum of crucial capabilities: technical, organizational, and social.
Government agencies have sometimes played key roles in the system-building phase of major infrastructures. During and after World War II, for example, the principal sources of support for US digital computing research were military agencies, especially the Office of Naval Research and the Air Force. Very large contracts for the SAGE air defense system helped IBM take the lead in the American computer industry (Edwards, 1996). The government has the ability to plan for the long term; the Dutch government in the sixteenth century, for example, planned forestry growth over the subsequent two hundred years as part of its naval construction infrastructure. Similarly, government has the ability to shepherd research projects over long periods of time – as witness the successful creation of the Internet.
source:
Paul N. Edwards, Steven J. Jackson, Geoffrey C. Bowker, and Cory P. Knobel, Understanding Infrastructure: Dynamics, Tensions, and Design. (Ann Arbor: DeepBlue, 2007),
NSF Grant 0630263
Understanding Infrastructure
https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/49353/UnderstandingInfrastructure2007.pdf
https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/49353/UnderstandingInfrastructure2007.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y
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Arthur B. VanGundy, Managing group creativity, 1984 [ ]
p.148
Redefining the Problem
Problems are abstract representations of what we perceive reality to be. They help to provide meaning for the many different situations we encounter. Without problems, we would be unable to distinguish between what is real and what is unreal.
Just as an artist uses canvas and paint to portray some feature of life, so do we use problems to paint pictures of our existence. Like the artist, we sketch a rough outline of a problem in our minds, fill in details, use shading and perspective, and produce a finished product. The result is how we depict reality.
What we consider to be real and unreal is entirely subjective. There are no absolute standards. We each create our own reality to use in interpreting our existence. Depending on our experiences and psychological makeup, what is real for one person will not necessarily be real for another. What you consider to be a problem may be of little concern to me, and vice versa. In one respect, your problems help you deal with your world and my problems help me deal with mine. Occasionally, such as in group situations, our worlds may collide or overlap. When this occurs, our individual perceptions of reality may blend, enabling us to work together to deal with our problem situations.
p.149
When we establish limits or boundaries for a situation, we are defining a problem; when we attempt to break away from these boundaries and see what lies on the other side, we are redefining a problem. Both these actions are highly interrelated and without a beginning or an end. Where one problem ends another may begin.
To define is to understand. When we say that we are defining a problem, we are actually clarifying our understanding of a situation by the use of a concept we call a problem. Problems are not situations. Problems are ways of understanding situations. Thus, when we redefine a problem, we are providing ourselves with a circumscribed way of viewing reality.
To redefine is to change our understanding of a situation. We may achieve such change by pushing out situational boundaries or by drawing them in, by altering the shape of the boundaries or by substituting other elements into the mix that makes up our problem situation. The situation always stays the same--only our understanding changes, because we have reconstructed the boundaries or changed the elements of the situation. The result is a new definition of problem.
p.149
We need to redefine problems in order to increase our understanding of situations.
p.149
In addition, when we have extensively redefined a situation, the odds are greatly increased that we will be able to avoid correctly solving the “wrong” problem. (Note that “wrong” problem in this instance refers to a situation that is not clearly understood.) This is perhaps the most important reason for redefining a problem situation.
p.149
In actual practice, an extensively redefined problem usually is a solved problem.
p.62
A problem must be understood before it can be solved. And understanding cannot be achieved without diagnosis.
[where you are in terms of problem-solving readiness]
p.62
Although many managers and others involved in creative problem solving are aware of the importance of diagnosis to problem solving, it may be fair to say that they are much less aware of the need to use diagnosis before they begin problem solving. Before you can begin diagnosing a problem, you first need to diagnose the context in which you will be doing your problem solving. That is, you need to diagnose the inputs, content, process, product, and outcomes before you start working on a particular problem. Then you need to take whatever actions are required prior to dealing with the focal problem.
Another way of stating all this is that you must first solve the problem of where you are in terms of problem-solving readiness before you can begin dealing with the problem of primary concern. This first set of activities might be referred to as contextual problem solving, while the second set might be referred to as focal problem solving. When you are doing contextual problem solving, you are assessing your inputs, evaluating group understanding of the process to be used, and identifying and understanding the significance of content variables, understanding and analyzing product variables, and anticipating the effects and consequences of outcome variables.
pp.89-90
Problem Dimensions
magnitude
history
location
multiple causes
threat
time horizon
people affected
complexity
(VanGundy, Arthur B., Managing group creativity / Arthur B. VanGundy, 1. problem solving, group, 1984, HD 30.29 .V35 1984, )
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pp.41-42
Problem solving
A problem does not have to be presented in a formal manner nor is it a matter for pencil and paper working out. A problem is simply the difference between what one has and what one wants. It may be a matter of avoiding something, of getting something, of getting rid of something, of getting to know what one wants.
There are three-types of problem:
• The first type of problem requires for its solution more information or better techniques for handling information.
• The second type of problem requires no new information but a rearrangement of information already available: an insight restructuring.
• The third type of problem is the problem of no problem. One is blocked by the adequacy of the present arrangement from moving to a much better one. There is no point at which one can focus one's efforts to reach the better arrangement because one is not even aware that there is a better arrangement. The problem is to realize that ‘there is a problem’ to realize that ‘things can be improved’ and to define ‘this realization as a problem’.
The first type of problem can be solved by vertical thinking. The second and third type of problem require lateral thinking for their solution.
(Edward de Bono, Lateral Thinking: a textbook of creativity, 1970, 1977, 1990, )
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J. E. Guy, Think yourself happy and health : a logical approach to emotional happiness, 1959
exposition banner book
$3.00 (1959)
p.105
In a recent issue of a magazine devoted to mechanical subjects appeared an article which describe a method used by the Russians to drive piling into the ground to be used for the support of building foundations. Some American engineers, visiting over there, happened to notice large pilings slowly moving into the ground without the usual pile driver. A small motor was attached to the piling which caused it to vibrate. These vibrations displaced the ground in a flowing movement which amazed the Americans. The Russians were in turn amazed that we did not know this old trick which has been in use with them for a long time. You see, our captive thinking, from the top down, would have prevented even the discussion of this idea.
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CHM Revolutionaries: Creativity, Inc- Author Ed Catmull in Conversation with Museum CEO John Hollar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfnK1vS9YJs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfnK1vS9YJs
54:06
Published on Jun 15, 2015
[Recorded: May 8, 2014]
creativity is about problem, it is far more than expression, and that managing it self should not be thought of as a controlling activity but as a creative activity, and the reason we make film, we want to touch culture in a positive way, and for me, it's a driving force, can I do something which has a positive effect, and ...
Ed Catmull reading from the book, Creativity, Inc: my goal has never been to tell people how Pixar has figured it all out, but rather to show how we continue to figure out every hour of the day, how we persist, the future is not a destination, it is a direction, it is our job then to work each day to chart the right course, and make corrections when inevitably we stray, I already assess the next crisis coming around the corner (incidentally it did happen), we must accept it, just as we accept the weather, uncertainty ... the truth is as challenge emerge, mistake will ..., we will always have problems, many of which will be hidden from our view, we must work to uncover them and assess our own role in them, even if doing so means making ourselves uncomfortable, when we come across a problem, we must marshall all our energy to solve it, if those assertions sound familiar, that's because I use them to kick off this book, there's something else that bears repeating here, unleashing the creativity requires we loosen the control, accept risk, trust our colleagues, work to clear the path for them, and pay attention to everything that creates fear, doing all these things won't necessary make managing a creative culture easier, but ease isn't the goal, excellence is.
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• development is the process whereby this information comes to exist
Richard C. Francis., Epigenetics : the ultimate mystery of inheritance, 2011
p.126
These recipe/program metaphors are attractive because they connect the basic intuitions common to all versions of preformationism to human artifacts with which we are all familiar, from cakes to graduation ceremonies.11 Whatever their intuitive appeal, these metaphors cannot withstand even the most cursory scrutiny. You couldn't cook up a single cell, much less a human being, given the instructions in the genetic recipe. Much of what you need to know lies elsewhere.
p.126
More to the epigenesist point, most of the information in the recipe that goes into making you is not there from the outset. Rather, development is the process whereby this information comes to exist.12 The recipe is written during development, not prior to development.
(Epigenetics : the ultimate mystery of inheritance / Richard C. Francis. ── 1st ed., 1. genetic regulation., 2. epigenesis., 3. adaptation (biology), QH450.F73 2011, 572.8'65──dc22, 2011, )
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Richard Buchanan, Wicked Problems in Design Thinking, Spring 1992
Design Issues, Vol. 8., No. 2, (Spring 1992), pp. 5-21
MIT Press
The problem for designers is to conceive and plan for what does not yet exist,
Herbert Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial
But Simon's methods are still analytic, directed toward the discovery of solution in some sense already known rather than the invention of solutions yet unknown.
(Richard Buchanan, Wicked Problems in Design Thinking, Spring 1992, Design Issues, Vol. 8., No. 2, (Spring 1992), pp. 5-21, MIT Press, 1992, )
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Arthur Koestler, The Act of Creation, first published in 1964
p.653
(pdf page 652/752)
ceteris paribus, on the nature of the challenge
Familiar situations──that is, the novelty and unexpectedness of situation. Familiar situation are dealt with by habitual methods; they can be recognized, at a glance, as analogous in some essential respect to past experiences which provide a ready-made rule to cope with them. The more new the features a task contains, the more difficult it will be to find the relevant analogy, and thereby the appropriate code to apply to it. We have seen (Book One, VIII, XVII) that one of the basic mechanisms of the Eureka process is the discovery of a hidden analogy; but ‘hiddenness’ is again a matter of degrees.
p.653
(pdf page 652/752)
How hidden is a hidden analogy, and where is it hidden? And what does the word ‘search’, so often used in the context of problem-solving, is apt to create confusion because it implies that I know beforehand what I am searching for, whereas in fact I do not. If I search for a lost collar-stud, I put a kind of filter into my ‘optical frame’ which lets only collar-studs and similar shapes pass, and rejects everything else──and then go looking through my drawers. But most tasks in problem-solving necessitate applying the reverse procedure: the subject looks for a clue, the nature of which he does not know, expect that it should be a ‘clue’ (Ansatzpunkt, point d'appui), a link to a type of problem familiar to him.
p.654
(pdf page 653/752)
Instead of looking through a given filter-frame for an object which matches the filter, he must try out one frame after another to look at the object before his nose, until he finds the frame into which it fits, i.e. until the problem presents some familiar aspect──which is then perceived as an analogy with past experience and allows him to come to grips with it.
p.654
(pdf page 653/752)
This search for the appropriate matrix, or rule of the game to tackle the process, is never quite random; the various types of guidance at the fumbling, groping, trying stages have been discussed before. Among the criteria which distinguish originality from routine are the level of consciousness on which the search is conducted, the type of guidance on which the subject relies, and the nature of obstacle which he has to overcome.
Arthur Koestler, The Act of Creation, first published in 1964
filename: Arthur-Koestler-The-Act-of-Creation.pdf
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([ strict process control for routine evolutions ]) ([ process ])
([ concurrently encourage challenges to this system ]) ([ innovation ])
Dave Oliver, Against the tide, 2014 [ ]
p.74
Of course, the people who appreciate the need to follow process may not be the same individuals who embrace innovation. A successful organization needs people with both personality types to coexist and excel. The critical management question is, How in the world should talent be parsed to accomplish both goals?
We have discussed how the nuclear-submarine forces approached this problem. They determined what was routine, established a process to control that action, assigned the routine processes to the junior personnel, and tasked senior managers (expected to be more capable) with innovation. But what happened when a bad process was inadvertently installed and accepted?
pp.121-122
Rickover lived his life by the measures he had publicly listed during his U.S. Naval Postgraduate School address in 1954, and one of those was that rules limit progress.10
By insisting on strict process control for routine evolutions yet concurrently encouraging individuals to challenge his system and his processes, Rickover was able to institute a scheme in which individuals did not have to choose between process and innovation.11
10.
11. His system had other subtle values. Those who brought up fraudulent challenges (i.e., their challenges were technically incorrect) to the system identified themselves as fools who needed more careful watching. At the same time, multiple challenges to the same processes, even if the challenges were flawed, indicated one of two issues. Either there was a misunderstanding of what the process was attempting to achieve, or there was a process flaw as yet uncovered. In any case, it indicated that a more flexible mind should reexamine the problem.
p.130
I thought it was noteworthy that no one ever discussed the key training differentiator. Good people are always harder to find than money.
p.137
In December 1989 off Malta, when President Bush met with President Gorbachev on board the Soviet flagship Gorki, Marshal Sergei F. Akhromeyev handed President Bush the Soviet military leader's own morning intelligence report pictorial, shown in map 1. His accompanying words were significant: “We have read every one of your submarine messages for ten years and have been unable to find or kill even one of them. We quit.”2
164n2
2. As mentioned previously, the Soviets were able to read our submarine correspondence as a result of the Walker-Whitworth spy ring, which had sold submarine communication code lists to the Soviet Union. This quotation was provided to me by Vice Adm. J. D. Williams, who also gave me a copy of the chart who was present that day in his role as commander, Sixth Fleet.
p.143
3. USS Thresher was lost on 10 April 1963. Thresher was the first class of nuclear submarines built by the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard under the laissez-faire concept then in vogue at the Bureau of Ships. All five previous classes of nuclear submarines, as well as the one-of-a-kind Nautilus and Seawolf, had been designed at Electric Boat in Groton (New London), Connecticut, a private shipyard operated much more in consonance with Rickover's technical guidance.
p.145
... [...] ...
Finally, late one evening in the early seventies, while cursing and reading through the many volumes of the Bureau of Ships manual, I discovered an interesting paragraph. While I could not myself make any alteration to the ship without the Bureau of Ships approval, in an emergency I could make “an alteration in lieu of a repair” to the ship. All I had to do to make this legal was to promptly notify the bureau via the chain of command.
I remember rereading the paragraph several times. The wording did not define the level of emergency. I also remember leaning back in my chair and looking at the list of current engineering problems taped above my desk. A rational person would surely accept that on Nautilus I was dealing with an emergency each and every day. In fact, at that very moment I had nearly thirty (30) unresolved requests to the bureau for nonnuclear alterations, and not one bureaucrat had yet seen fit to even say boo in reply. The one that irritated me the most was a four-hundred-cycle (400-cycle) electrical generator located underneath a lithium bromide air-conditioning drain. With great care and a lot of work, we could get the electrical machine working for only a couple of days before something happened and the motor was once again drenched with seawater. The remainder of the time, the electrical unit was either on fire or bagged in plastic, waiting to be removed and repaired.
The next day I declared an emergency and moved the generator forty feet aft to a dry location above the main shaft. I filled out, signed, and mailed away all the neccessary paper, positive the silent bureau would never respond. Soon we had accomplished most of the other changes for which we had previously requested approval.
I will not pretend that no displeasure was expressed during the next annual review of my records, performed by five members of the staff for the Atlantic commander in chief (the same fleet commander who I believed had been less than diligent in answering my mail). And I won't pretend we passed that inspection. However, ultimately, none of my people died--and the chain of command started paying attention to what I wanted to change.
(Against the tide : Rickover's leadership principles and the rise of the nuclear Navy / Rear Admiral Dave Oliver, USN (Ret.)., 1. Rickover, Hyman George., 2. admirals--united states--biography., 3. united states. navy--officers--biography., 4. nuclear submarines--united states--history--20th century., 5. nuclear warships--united states--safety measures--history., 6. marine nuclear reactor plants--united states--safety measures--history., 7. united states. navy--management., 8. leadership--united states., 2014, )
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Manifesto for Agile Software Development
We are uncovering better ways of developing
software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:
INDIVIDUALS and INTERACTIONS over processes and tools
WORKING SOFTWARE over comprehensive documentation
CUSTOMER COLLABORATION over contract negotiation
RESPONDING to CHANGE over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more.
____________________________________
([
It is not a question of right or left
conservative or liberal
rich or poor
What are the limiting factors
- some examples of material limiting factors for most humans are things like like food, water, nutrition inside the food, vitamins in the food, mineral in the food, protein in the food, fiber in the food, material needs like clean air, housing, clothing for places that get cold and protection from the weather, ...
- some examples of emotional and spiritual limiting factors are needs to belong, like a part of a family, a house of worship, a clan, a tribe, ...
- intellectual, knowledge, causality and understanding can be a limiting factor, however, they are not a basic need for survival in our discussion.
- intellectual, knowledge, and understanding as limiting factors would be within our boundaries when the factors are about food, habitat, cloth covering, transport, and health;
- for example, many food can not be eaten in a raw state (so cooking knowledge is needed) (implicit in that is the practical knowledge to start a cooking fire or a fire pit), and even with food that can be eaten in a raw state, you would need to be able to prepare the food to be ready for eating; so you can have the food, but no practical knowledge in the preparation of that food;
- on health (with two aspects of health, the first aspect being the maintenance of health -- also refer to as "prevention" -- for example, avoiding smoking and second-hand smoke, or, you can eat this mushroom, but do not eat this mushroom because it is poisonous, the second aspect being knowledge needed to address the symptoms and causes of illness when you become sick, the third aspect being the stage of pre-illness -- the most under explore and under investigated aspect of health; and there is a reason for this, because the interactive and iterative process of diagnosing the stages of pre-illness is really tough, hard, and confusing.)
- the whole package
- practical knowledge
- experience, performance, to do
- to paint one simple picture of the the limiting factors
- the limiting factors could be who you know, strong ties and weak ties
- the limiting factors could be what you know, knowledge and understanding [meaningless; knowledge and understanding need context and perspective - environment full; knowledge and understanding is practical pointless without context, because the label (they) are environmental free]
- the limiting factor could be time, which is a very bad example, because time, mass, and gravity are basically the same thing
- basically time exist in the material physical world
- time exist base on human activities
- time exist as gestation of a baby in the mother's womb
- time exist as biorhythm, biological clock, and genetic clock
- time exist as sun rise, sun set, moon cycle, high tide and low tide, and the changing cycle of the season
- time exist as tree rings
- time exist as the preparing the soil, planting, and harvesting of food
- time in it of itself is meaningless
- ...
what is limiting or
what will become limiting very quickly at the current rate of development
once you have identify one limiting factor,
you can identify the next limiting factor,
once you solve one limiting factor,
you might soon discover the next limiting factor, waiting off stage,
after a few cycle of dispatching one limiting factor after next,
you would come to realize that, there are layers of limiting factors,
very much like peeling onions,
not only that, the limiting factor would shift or move, from one to the next
])
([
The Fantastic grain is the [“limiting factor”]
Progress is held up when a [“limiting factor”] forms in some component or subsystem, but then [Progress] begins again when the problem is solved – until the next [“limiting factor”] forms.
This cycles of addressing the next [“limiting factor”] continue until the development of the technical system is exhausted; or until someone or a team of people over a period of time is able to overcome the next [“limiting factor”], then the technical developmental cycle is reset, begins again, or restarted.
If you were to replace the idea of “limiting factor” with the idea of “reverse salients”, or with the idea of “parameter threshold”, then the same general message should apply.
• http://eandt.theiet.org/magazine/2009/12/back-to-eda.cfm
• "When you play to the existing rules in business, the chances of winning are actually very low. The power is all with the companies that originally set them. So, the companies that are going to win in the longer-term will be those that set out to change and rewrite the rules. That's what I'm looking for."
• "Before these guys spend a dime, they're thinking about the exit and there are all sorts of numbers they want from that. ..."
• pain point
• friction
• “limiting factor”
• “reverse salients”
• “parameter threshold”
• “The Fantastic grain” (see “Golden Fish Method” or Ideal-Real Transition Method, pp.181-182, Semyon D. Savransky., Engineering of creativity, 2000)
])
• “limiting factor”
• “reverse salients”
• “parameter threshold”
• “The Fantastic grain” (see “Golden Fish Method” or Ideal-Real Transition Method, pp.181-182, Semyon D. Savransky., Engineering of creativity, 2000)
([ the solid-state transistor is the “reverse salients” or “limiting factor” ])
([ “reverse salients”, which defines as “components in the system that have fallen behind or are out of phase with the others.” -- Thomas Hughes])
([
A necessity to overcome the [“parameter threshold”] of the currently limited technological capabilities of a society determines the mode of performance of a technique to be invented[,] and categorizes the problems to be solved in the second case., p.162, Semyon D. Savransky., Engineering of creativity, 2000
])
([
The limiting factor, to the next potential limiting factor:
“There are layers of limits around every growing plant, child, epidemic, new product, technological advance, company, city, economy, and population. Insight comes not only from recognising which factor is limiting, but from seeing that growth itself depletes or enchances limits and therefore changes what is limiting. The interplay between a growing plant and the soil, a growing company and its market, a growing economy and its resource base, is dynamic. Whenever one factor ceases to be limiting, growth occurs, and the growth itself changes the relative scarcity of factors until another becomes limiting. To shift attention from the abundant factors to the next potential limiting factor is to gain real understanding of, and control over, the growth process.”, p.102, Donella H. Meadows, Edited by Diana Wright, Thinking in systems
])
____________________________________
• if you do not know the limiting factors, then you can use Ideal-Real Transition Method, or the “Golden Fish Method” to help you identify the limiting factors.
• subject matter experts can usually be found in high school, college, universities, reporters, journalists, writers, researchers (hollywood), researchers (freelance), in books at the library and the bookstores, in articles, in papers, in textbooks, ...
Semyon D. Savransky., Engineering of creativity, 2000
pp.181-182
“Golden Fish Method” or
Ideal-Real Transition Method
One of the main characteristics of inventive thinking is the ability to see the unusual within the usual and vice versa. Every fantasy or inventive situation consists of two parts: real things and fantastic grain. The aim of the Ideal-Real Transition Method (often called “Golden Fish Method” in honor of the famous tale) is to extract this fantastic grain. In order to do this, a fantastic situation is divided, step by step, into two parts -- real and fantastic -- until it cannot be divided any more. This indivisible part is called the “fantastic grain.” Altshuller gave a recurrent formula for resolving every fantastic situation
F0 = R1 + F1,
F1 = R2 + F2 (F2 < F1 < F0),
F2 = R3 + F3 (F3 < F2 < F1)
Here R is the real part, and F is the fantastic part. The equation recurs until Fi will be so small that we may not consider it an unbelievable fantasy.
Let's see how this method works on the example of the “tale of the golden fish.”
The old man came to the sea and began to call the golden fish. The fish got to him and ask by human voice...
Let's analyze this situation:
Could an old man go to the sea? Yes, he could. So that part is real.
We remove that part and are left to consider.
The old man began to call the golden fish. The fish got to him and asked by human voice...
Could an old man call the golden fish? Yes, he could. So that is also real. We are now left with
The fish got to him and asked by human voice...
Could some golden fish (we know that there are such fish) get near the old man? Yes, they could. So this bit is also real.
The fish asked by human voice...
Could the old man hear a voice from the fish? Yes, he could! We know that some fish make sounds. So that part is also real!
human ...
Could this voice be human? No, this could not. That is it! The fantastic grain of the situation is that the voice of the fish was human.
But if we take even this fantasic thing of the golden fish story, we cannot consider it, because it can have a real explanation: Could it seem to an old man who does not hear well because of age that the golden voice is human? Note that if the situation were a technical one, we would come to the physical contradiction determining the fantastic grain of the situation. For example, take the problem of creating pressure by a liquid, with the help of centrifugal forces, on a cylinder that is placed on the axis of the centrifugal rotation. The fantastic grain of the situation is that the direction of the centrifugal force is opposite to the direction of the needed pressure. One can easily formulate the physical contradiction now and then find its solution in the list of physical effects. (Try to do it yourself!)
This method builds mastery of skills in the backward search of a problem's solutions that is important for some TRIZ instruments.
( Savransky, Semyon D., Engineering of creativity : introduction to TRIZ methodology of inventive problem solving / by Semyon D. Savransky., 1. engineering--methodology., 2. problem solving--methodology., 3. creative thinking., 4. technological innovations., 2000, )
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