The Creative Problem Solver`s Toolkit (In Progress)
Creating problem solving is the process of creating a solution to a problem.
1. Look for merit in crude ideas.
Even foolish ideas can have merit and advantages. From these, modify the idea to keep the advantages and remove the disadvantages. Ideas don’t appear fully formed, they need to be REFINED over multiple steps.
To find merit in new ideas, try looking at it from different viewpoints or perspectives. Multiple fresh perspectives are a great way to discover solutions to problems. (More on gaining fresh perspectives in later chapters.) These perspectives might not be RIGHT but they can still reveal practical solutions.
Having a sense of humor and playfulness is good for ideas.
Don’t share these ideas at first. Evaluate its strengths and weaknesses, then ask for suggestions.
Capture ideas as they come up!
2. Reconsider your goals
Think about what you REALLY want to accomplish, then consider alternatives that accomplish the goal even if it doesn’t solve the problem as you originally defined it.
Always be open to changing your goals to increase your creativity. Be flexible, especially when you get a promising idea that doesn’t fit in the goal entirely.
Get new perspectives by converting negative goals to positive goals.
Think of the ideal situation. It needs to be specific, but general enough for a broad range of possibilities. You can set and prioritize preferences to cover this arena. It’s a good way to give yourself a direction to start heading in for creative solutions. Think big as a starting point.
Make sure your goals are FINAL - IE, ask yourself, “If I get this goal, and ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE, will this make me happy?”
Consider indrect approaches to meet your goal when meeting resistance - work smarter, not harder. Change the direction of your approach, break it down into multiple steps, amplify it in some way, or use leverage.
Be aware of hidden goals - wanting to prove a point, get revenge, avoid what you fear, satisfy the ego, or reducing guilt.
Transform big goals into specific step by step goals and prioritize by importance - you may not need to do them all to come to a satisfactory solution.
Non-objects - such as techniques, strategies, processes, etc - can be created to solve problems, and often do the job well in solving a problem in lieu of a physical invention.
Consider pulling instead of pushing - attract people and things towards what you do want, instead of pushing them away from what you don’t want. This can help reduce effort to bring about change.
3. Explore many alternatives
Look beyond the obvious choices - explore the many possibilities and solutions. They’re often less obvious and more creative.
Write down as many ideas as you can within a reasonable amount of time, even the ones you think you won’t use. This is because even the not-great ideas can be combined or parts mixed together for better ideas, or reveal new insights.
Creative problem solving is a BRANCHING process. it’s not just one idea to another, it’s multiple branches leading to multiple paths that cross together for a greater solution. To keep things under control, don’t pursue ideas that aren’t likely to be refined into something useful.
One technique to help you discover alternatives is to use a radial outline. This is where you write your problem in the middle of a sheet, then write solutions radiating outwards with branches, then branching out from each of those. (Compare this to a mind map or other forms of free assocation.) This allows you to group ideas together and identify new categories. Try to add these even if you won’t act on these ideas, because they can help spurn thinking and related ideas.
You can discover more catrories by focusing on the lower/middle levels of branches (near the center) before focusing on more specific, higher answers withi the category.
Another method of finding alternative ideas includes drawing up a matrix. Basically, this is a table where all the columns are based on one characteristic and the rows are based on alternatives for the other characteristic. From there, you can see how these combinations of characteristics interact with each other. This only works when referencing two characteristics though.
Combining ideas into something new is also a good thing to do, but not every combination works.
To eliminate alternative ideas, a good thing to do is to choose each alternative you like least, from most to least, and toss them out. However, before you toss each, consider if the idea has any useful features that you could move into the other alternatives.
These are just tools - it’s not a linear process. Do the strategy that makes the most sense at the time. Start anywhere, maybe with even just one possible solution, even if it’s random.
4. Refine your ideas
Identify an idea’s advantages and one of the disadvantages, and try to remove at least one disadvantage without losing any advantages. Keep doing it as much as possible to refine the idea.
You can also copy parts of other ideas into your idea to improve it.
Make sure to test your ideas! Test it on a small scale, or one part of a solution at a time. (This is a programming website, you’d better believe we find testing important.)
You can discover flaws and weaknesses in an idea with test scenarios that are exaggerated to reveal disadvantages. Consider what might make a situation worse instead of better. You should also try to anticipate consequences that might make your idea fail, or cause some other big disaster.
Aim to simplify, but don’t be lazy and don’t over simplify. Eliminate complexity where possible, feasible, and sensible.
If you’re trying to change an existing system into a new one, consider doing it gradually, bridging towards the new solution with a smoother transition. (Again, programming systems probably run into this a lot.)
5. Thinking in alternate ways
Besides words, also try to think in pictures/images for results that words can’t fully illustrate, especially when brainstorming alternate ideas. Visual thinking is especially important when trying to be creative, and you already do it when you daydream or use your imagination. Try sketching ideas in drawings and maps to organize and develop ideas, especially if that idea doesn’t exist yet.
You can also come up with abstract concepts that can be translated into specific details. These can often come from similar contexts (for example, the idea of velcro comes from those burrs in nature that stick to clothes). See the similarities between two concepts. (In Magic the Gathering, the order in which played cards are resolved is a direct comparison to stacks in computer science: the last card played before the stack closes is the first one that resolved.)
Imagine what someone else might suggest as a solution to a problem. What would a plumber suggest? A doctor? An engineer?
Make sure to take breaks and do other things to let your subconscious chew on the problem. The book suggests thinking about solutions before the unrelated activities to give your mind food for thought. Make the other activity not related to heavy thinking, ideally. Be receptive to what might come up.
Use a fantasy visualization with an imagined wise character to see what your subconscious puts forward. This sounds silly, but it can bypass usual barriers in direct thinking without dismissal.
Sometimes it’s worth trusting your gut. To train your intiuition, listen to your gut when making a decision that won’t be a disaster if things turn out badly. Consider advantages and disadvantages and listen for the subtle yes or no, a physical feeling or rlewase of tension. (But don’t let it override conscious thinking.)
Do the usual good stuff to help reduce mental clutter - exercise, eat well, get enough sleep, go easy on the alcohol and junk, meditate, write stuff down, etc.
6. Thinking dimensionally
Consider various dimensions when coming uop with solutions. More than weight, money, time, and other numerically measured dimensions, you can look at more abstract dimensions like feelings. If a characteristic can be represented as a point along a line, that’s a dimension (like a spectrum). Feelings, size, how well something is cooked…that’s a dimension to consider. Each point on this spectrum can even be a category to consider.
You can alter characteristics along these dimensions to help with ideas. Changing other characterisitics in this way can help eliminate disadvantages of changing some other characteristics. Arrange two dimensions as a matrix to see other combinations.
Another type of dimension is words in a sentence. Change words one at a time to reveal possibilities: satisfying to unsatisfying, job to jobs, etc. Words represent multiple characteristics which are more dimensions to work with.
Consider looking for relevant differences (such as people who are on time and people that are not on time).
Sometimes, one dimension can actually be independent multiple dimensions put together. Stereotypes are a common form of one-dimensional thinking. (For a more volatile example, consider: not all conservatives are old white rich men, and not all liberals are young diverse middle-class people. This is one-dimensional thinking.)
If you’re evaluating risk, you can consider the dimensions of possible gain, possible loss, and probability of an undesirable outcome.
Sometimes, dimensions aren’t as binary as you think. They’re really more like categories along a dimensional spectrum. Consider all of them to consider all possibilities and get more solutions.
Considering physical dimensions can include: the object itself, part of the object, arrangement of multiple objects, existence and non-existence of these objects. Things like shape, texture, weight, length, size, thickness, color, temperature, odor, taste, quntity, quality…there’s a lot of possibilities.
Consider dimensions that can change even without measurable numbers.
Another good dimension to consider is opposites, and one thing might have mulltiple opposites. To find them, look for things that can be reversed.
Four general dimensions to consider: positive VS. negative, time, direction, existence VS. non-existence.