Problem Solving and Innovation with
Practical Dialectics and Systems Thinking

Get Creative Ideas
(Ingenuity Training)

Inventors Workshop

What is Practical Dialectics

Articles

Analyze Your System What is the Difference Between Requirements and Design Specifications What we think intelligence is Overview of TRIZ

Start here. Book: Junctions. On How Worlds are Connected - Fundamental principles of systematic manipulation to create inventions.
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Contact: Igor Polkovnikov, ipolk@virtuar.com
San Francisco Bay Area

 

Workshop in Dialectical Problem Solving and Innovation

For people who are interested in invention and innovation technologies, problem solving, dialectics, systems science, evolution of systems, TRIZ. We research and learn creative methods of problem solving and construction of systems, systems thinking, and thinking out of the box. Engineers, creatives, investors, philosophers, patent lawyers, warriors, politicians, all others who meet crucial challenging problems and want to grow can find it useful.

On demand.

The innovation problems happen in engineering life often and rare. We can solve many such problems every day in multitude, and, rarely, we meet a special problem and if we find a solution, it may change our personal life.

What is Practical Dialectics

Practical Dialectics was established by Dr. Henrich Altshuller as the way to solve most complicated problems involving contradictions. It is a branch of general systems science targeting problem solving and development of a penetrating mind. The main idea is to analyze the situation to formulate a contradiction, then use a method to solve it. There are about 200 methods developed.

Practical Dialectics is about
What to Do if You Have to Deal with This or You Want to Make This:

Absurd;
Advantages and disadvantages;
Ambiguity;
Antagonism;
Antinomy;
Antithesis;
"Cobra effect";
Competing resources and priorities;
Conflict;
Contradiction;
Contrast;
Controversy, controversial, any contro-;
Converse, conversely;
Critical thinking;
Diamond dependency;
Dilemma;
"Dimensions";
"Dreadnought trap";
Dualism, duality;
"Dual Nature of Existence";
Inconsistencies;
Irony;
Mess;
Multicriterion;
Multiobjective;
"No win - No win" situation;
Opposite (if A than B, C in opposite case (Galois));
Paradox;
Positive/Negative;
Pros and cons;
Things are not what they seem;
X and anti-X;
Yes and no;
Zugzwang ("compulsion to move") " - any possible move will worsen the position ";
интересы порой диаметрально противоположны;
"нос достанешь — хвост увяз. Хвост достанешь — нос увяз";
"some oddity caused by jostling theories";
"It would be cool, but we cannot";
"What didn’t go well – what went well";
"Заколдованый круг";

What it is NOT about

Trade-offs and compromise. Solving a dialectical problem is not finding a trade-off. It is about Win-Win.

Main achievements of Practical Dialectics:

Why Practical Dialectics?

Links

This is an inventors club!

Who are inventors? People who are crazy about inventing. They invent always, day and night, on the job or not. Crazy ideas and small, practical ideas, always doing something new, cannot stop themselves even if it gives them a lot of troubles. They are not for money, it is their way of life which gives them enjoyment and satisfaction.

We learn TRIZ here

TRIZ is a part of general systems science. They may not recognize it, but it is. You may say that there is a lot of philosophy in TRIZ like contradictions, etc.. but systems science is partially a philosophy.
The main achievement of TRIZ is classification of problems by the type of contradictions raised. The TRIZ “principles” and other methods are the ways how a new property can be achieved by manipulation of what is available. See the analogy with the cornerstone statement of systems science: A system possesses a property not found in its parts. The classical systems science does not go much forward from this, but TRIZ does, and that is the main and very useful achievement of TRIZ as science. Other achievements of TRIZ are numerous..

Creativity is an ability of analyze things into smaller components and assemble them in a new way. It can be learned.

Blog

TRIZ lecture in November 2023

Is mathematics created or dicovered?

Is any invention created or discovered? It is pretty much the same thing. You can not create something which can not exist. And if it can exist, it can be discovered.
Anything which exists discovered. What you do with it is created. Painting rules are discovered, individual painting is created.

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Igor: I'd like to let you know I enjoy our weekly discussions very much. The discussions help me see the inner working of situations, mundane objects and various issues. Thank you for creating the innovation club, introducing us to the TRIZ principles and standards. Understanding the principles and the problem solving algorithm can open many doors. Knowing how to apply them can open even many more doors. Also, I enjoy your tango classes. I like how you relate tango movements with body mechanic. If you know of any relationships between TRIZ and Tango, I am interested to hear it. It would be good if we devote part of our discussion on the substance, structure and principles of screenwriting. Looking forward to more mind opening discussions. Thank you again for sharing your treasures with us.
WK, Nov 25, 2020