- In problem solving, one is constantly balancing between keeping things free and loose, and the opposite drive towards closure
Master Strategies §
Build Up §
- Begin with something you know is in the solution to the problem and then add additional information to that seed.
- Strength: Constant, Spontaneous Growth. Allows attacking a problem from a known starting point.
- Weakness: Lacking internal structure and vulnerable to steering off course from the solution.
Eliminate §
- Begin with more than you need from the solution and eliminate what you known that you don’t want.
- Strength: Less risk of over-extension since we demarcate what we do not want.
- Weakness: Assumes that within the realm of possibilities being considered, there is a good solution. It’s possible to eliminate everything or to eliminate too much
Work Forwards §
- Move from the beginning of a problem to a solution in an inductive manner.
- Strength: Easily traceable and communicable continuity with a clear linear progression. Also, each step sets up the next.
- Weakness: Relies on good assumptions at the beginning, which may be overlooked. Bad assumptions give bad solutions.
Work Backwards §
- Begin with an assumed solution and work towards the premise. Start with the goal, ask what should precede that and continue until the beginning.
- Strength: Helps keep perspective of the work by questioning assumptions and seeing gaps in one’s approach.
- Weakness: Relies on good assumptions at the end. It is also harder to communicate these ideas
Set Manipulation §
Associate §
- Find and follow associations made between two objects in the mind.
- Strength: Finding new and innovative connections between two seemingly disparate things. A fresh perspective.
- Weakness: Associations are a byproduct of convention or culture. Prone to fixating on the wrong associations.
Classify §
- Organize information into sets based on common properties of the members and manipulate the labels as abstractions.
- Strength: Allows abstraction and managing a large amount of information. Simplifies complexity
- Weakness: Abstraction ignores the individual properties of each object in the class which may be important. Oversimplification can cause confusion and misunderstanding.
Generalize §
- Get away from specifics and see things in larger perspective. Form a theory that captures basic principles.
- Strength: The formation of a conjecture or theory which captures an abstraction applicable to other situations. It encourages movement from the experimental to the conceptual.
- Weakness: Too much abstraction oversimplifies or is inaccurate. Theories may never be tested.
Exemplify §
- Make something specific by giving an example or concretizing.
- Strength: Allows testing an idea. Gives context to a concept. Encourages precision and clarity of thought and questioning generalizations.
- Weakness: :Too easy to get bogged down in the specifics that the fundamental aspects of the problem are ignored.
Compare §
- Put two things together and look for similarities and differences between them.
- Strength: Better ways of describing or communicating an idea, or forming abstractions that can be the source of new concepts.
- Weakness: Easy to make unfair comparisons, or comparisons which are superficial to the elements in question. Limited only to the variables being compared.
Relate §
- Link, connect or find causal relationships.
- Strength: Gives structure and ties things together. Abstraction hinges on the ability to make relationships with some more general principle.
- Weakness: Two factors might be related prematurely or in terms of irrelevant functions. Dependent on timing and context. Fixed relationships can be restrictive
Involvement §
Commit §
- To conclusively decide or bring closure so that something can happen.
- Strength: Useful when you are working with limited resources or external pressures.
- Weakness: Closure at the wrong time can be destructive or limiting. Timing is key
Defer §
- To defer from making a final decision.
- Strength: Keeps a situation flexible and open. Defer something if the timing is bad.
- Weakness: Easy to make deferring an excuse strategy. Easy to defer addressing a problem to avoid it.
Leap In §
- Become involved or immersed in a situation even if you are totally unprepared.
- Strength: Gain first-hand experience and understanding. Gain a better perspective of the problem. Can accelerate progress because it avoids wasteful analysis and preparation
- Weakness: May not be good if the cost of failure is high. Relies on self-confidence.
Hold Back §
- Continue to attend to the problem from a distance. Wait, observe, listen or detach yourself from the immediate context of a problem and perceive it from the outside.
- Strength: Gives an external perspective to the problem itself. Good if the cost of failure is high.
- Weakness: Prone to a lack of commitment and involvement in a problem. Holding back for too long may mean low impact.
Focus §
- Consciously place your attention in one specific area.
- Strength: Brings concentration. Allows for a continuous line of reasoning and for maintaining complex relationships in the mind. Enforces self-control. Maximizes limited resources. Allows for efficiency and speed.
- Weakness: Easy to lose perspective or to get tunnel vision. Too much focused thought leads to rigidity. Easy to lose awareness of one’s surrounding. Can drain energy.
Release §
- Relinquish control of attention and permit the mind to wander. Cast a wide scope and deal with many factors. Allow for subconscious or external stimuli to attract consciousness.
- Strength: Opens up oneself to a train of thought. Good for breaking out of fixation and allowing other perspectives
- Weakness Releasing concentration to soon prevents the formation and completion of a concept. Reacquiring focus is also more difficult. This strategy can also lead one down tangents unrelated to the original problem. May also be self destructive if you have gained a certain amount of momentum.
Force §
- Use willpower to direct attention in spite of desires, feelings and abilities.
- Strength: Gives motivation through the most unpleasant aspects of a problem. Extends perceived limitations. Breaks through inhibitions, fixations and fears.
- Weakness: Waste of time and energy if applying force cannot produce a useful change. May have unfortunate repercussions.
Relax §
- Free the mind from external or internal force. Relaxed concentration means not forcing the mind but also not letting it totally wander
- Strength: Gives the body a form of rest. Lets us replenish and gain a new perspective. Rids the mind of needless worry and allows it to retain what is essential/
- Weakness: Might devolve into escaping the difficulties of a problem.
Dream §
- Have vivid thoughts, images or emotions during sleep.
- Strength: Gain insights into the subconscious. Gain ideas impossible to initiate while conscious.
- Weakness: Dreams are unreliable and difficult to explore. Best to be aware of its potential without overly relying on it.
Imagine §
- Form a mental image, pretend or daydream.
- Strength: Useful in generating alternatives or simulating them. Good for breaking fixation or to project oneself onto a different perspective. Can be used to empathize with others. Can be used to experience dangerous things. Can be used to communicate a picture by stimulating the imagination of others.
- Weakness: Prone to escapism or being ungrounded in reality. Requires a larger plan and knowing when to stop playing with mental images.
Purge §
- Release tension through externalization.
- Strength: Get all ideas out in external form and free the mind to work on other things
- Weakness: Might purge ideas which are still developing, and thus these ideas may never be reconsidered. Might purge perspectives too early .
Incubate §
- Set a problem aside and allow the subconscious to work on the original problem. Requires interest with the problem.
- Strength: Gain ideas impossible to initiate while conscious
- Weakness: No guarantee of success. Subconscious is difficult to access. Unreliable
Display §
- Change information into a state suitable for visual analysis. (see Data Visualization). It helps to do this after analysis and make sure all elements are present
- Strength: Allows the viewer to comprehend more information since it is difficult to juggle more than a few elements in the mind.
- Weakness: Might foster fixation. Prone to improper visualization which highlights patterns that were never there. Takes time to make the visualization. The visualization is not guaranteed to be good and may be just as convoluted.
Organize §
- Give order to a set of information
- Strength: Achieves coordination and cohesion. Fixes relationships, makes patterns, and regulates complexity.
- Weakness: Too much organization leads to fixation, rigidity, lack of freedom and growth.
List §
- Record information and organize it in a way that it can be easily manipulated.
- Strength: Easy to examine, restructure, check or search. Can be a kind of purging strategy to get down ideas and display them so they may be examined, ordered, and used. Also useful for recording and remembering.
- Weakness: Simplicity. Cannot express a multitude of relationships that are not simply one dimensional.
Check §
- Test or compare one set of information against another, looking for similarities and differences.
- Strength: Good for questioning assumptions concerning expectations and results. Stabilizes and reinforces position for the status quo. It is appropriate when being successful or achieving expected outcomes is important.
- Weakness: Involves expending time and energy. May not be worthwhile. Too much checking will inhibit progress. Has interpersonal impacts since checking another’s work is implying doubt in their effort.
Diagram §
- Sketches, rough diagrammatic plans, and any other graphic representations that indicate general relationships.
- Strength: A quick way to translate relationships in an easy to see form. Encourages exploration to form new symbolic relationships. Helps examine the problem from different perspectives. Gives concreteness to the problem. Gives symbolic and abstract forms to the problem.
- Weakness: Has limitations in the quantitative relationships it can communicate since it is symbolic and qualitative. Dependent on everyone interpreting the symbols correctly. Diagram might imply something unintended.
Chart §
- Any two dimensional simulation where physical relationships have explicit meanings.
- Strength: Forces one to be explicit, especially with matters of direct physical significance. Good for recording information
- Weakness: Requires time and energy to create. Requires prudence to ensure accuracy. May encourage a limited view of the problem.
Verbalize §
- Describe a situation with words.
- Strength: Best for describing complex events and concepts. Can be used for encouraging yourself through expression. Expression opens up the opportunity to construct new concepts.
- Weakness: Overused to the point we forget our other senses. Words are poor at describing visual or sensory experiences.
Visualize §
- Describe a situation with a graphic, picture, or demonstration (both real or imagined).
- Strength: Gives an opportunity of insight from the visual feedback or analysis that may occur. Good for communicating when there is a language barrier. Good for gaining new perspectives
- Weakness: Not everything can be visualized. Abstract things or sequences of events may be difficult to visualize.
Memorize §
- Structures perception so they can easily be recovered. The brain is used as an information storage and retrieval system.
- Strength: The brain is always with you. Bypasses conscious searching and recalling, especially for situations where immediate responses are important. Helpful for repeated information. Forces you to examine the information more closely.
- Weakness: What is committed to memory may have no meaning for the learner. May memorize insignificant or irrelevant information.
Recall §
- The conscious use of past experiences to deal with a present situation. Also includes relating past experiences with present ones.
- Strength: Prevents repeating mistakes or provides one with strategies that may work in the present because they worked in the past.
- Weakness: Not always reliable since it is dependent on human memory. May encourage fixation and inhibit new thinking.
Record §
- Externalized memory storage.
- Strength: Allows information to be saved and communicated. Bypasses the faults of the human mind. Can be used to externalize and manipulate information, force commitment, avoid misunderstandings, and augment communication.
- Weakness: Requires time and energy. Recording is dependent on the strategy of retrieval. Too much can inhibit thinking, fix concepts and prematurely finalize your thoughts
Retrieve §
- Recovering and presenting the ideas and information that has been previously stored.
- Strength: By pulling out past knowledge, we obtain a rich store of information. Can be used as a preparation strategy.
- Weakness: Almost always involves time and energy. May discourage being adaptive to a new situation or dealing with it in innovative ways.
Search §
- Involves finding something and expanding the solution space because of a dissatisfaction with the status quo, curiosity, and the desire to go to new territory.
- Strength: Increases experience and expands horizons. Allows for a deeper understanding of the problem.
- Weakness: May not give enough time to stop and work with what you have. Constant searching is a symptom of insecurity and defensiveness. Expends time and energy.
Select §
- Moves in on a specific alternative to use in the final solution.
- Strength: Forces a decision and progresses problem solving. It forces closure for a point of tie on one sub-solution.
- Weakness: Selecting too quickly means passing up other fruitful options. Dependent on timing.
Dealing with the Future §
Plan §
- Make a present decision about future actions.
- Strength: Good when there are time, resource or energy constraints or when the cost of failure is very high. A way of increasing the probability of realizing what we want.
- Weakness: Bad when there are many uncontrollable variables. In that case, planning wastes time and discourages flexibility and spontaneity. Planning may also set unrealistic expectations
Predict §
- Transforms whatever material is available about the past and present into a model of the future.
- Strength: Allows for learning and growing from experience.
- Weakness: You may act based on a wrong predictive model. It is often better to avoid a prediction especially when it is emotionally charged and can affect your own actions.
Assume §
- Accepts the state of the problem as it is exists and proceeds to other strategies.
- Strength: Fast. It bypasses uncertainty and momentary questions to explore avenues of search
- Weakness: False assumptions affect our planning. May also close off avenues of search.
Question §
- Challenge the validity of a point in order to investigate a new line of reasoning.
- Strength: Less likely to fall into false assumptions or fixation. It wants to play devil advocate to explore an issue.
- Weakness: In excess and inappropriateness of timing, it can be negative. There is also a danger of overloading the mind with two many questions at a time, reducing focus.
Hypothesize §
- Integrates existing information to form an explanation of why things should or should not happen.
- Strength: Provides a conceptual model which can form a basis to test future actions. Attempts to provide and explanation about how a system works before making changes on the system.
- Weakness: Time consuming and inhibits spontaneous and intuitive action. False hypotheses negatively influences our actions. Too much hypothesizing can be an excuse for not testing your hypothesis with others.
Guess §
- Use the subconscious (and past experiences) to give an explanation or dictate action.
- Strength: Immediate. Especially good if speed is more important than a correct answer. Also allows for a first pass at a problem.
- Weakness: Most problems cannot be solved with intuition alone. Many problems are also non-trivial that they cannot be handled by guesses.
Define §
- Focuses attention and delineate the solution space.
- Strength: Inherent in a definition to the problem is a definition of possible solutions. It also clears up misunderstandings and establishes common ground.
- Weakness: Premature definitions causes rigidity in thinking. Definitions require testing.
Symbolize §
- Converts from one form of representation to another.
- Strength: Transforms the statement of a problem into a more easily manipulated form. Also used for expressing thoughts indirect.
- Weakness: It is easy to form idealized relationships between symbols and forget their reference points. Symbols can overlook social factors. Symbols can be misused.
Simulate §
- Represent a real situation using a model.
- Strength: Bypasses the implications and difficulties of dealing with reality. Reduces risk and errors. Aids in prediction. Allows attacking the problem from multiple viewpoints.
- Weakness: Can only represent certain variables of the real problem. Random or unpredictable situations are difficult to simulate. Simulation may also encourage rigidity because it establishes certain preconceptions about the problem.
Test §
- Make a trial run and relate the results to your expectations.
- Strength: Evaluative. Explores variables in a situation. Adds new inputs to the problem solving process.
- Weakness: Changes may be destructive. Requires careful design so that the results of testing are not misleading. Testing is disruptive to ideation since it interrupts the development of an idea
Physical Manipulation §
Play §
- Allows free exploration of a situation without conscious intention.
- Strength: Reduces the importance of success when taking action or making change. Removes fixations and allows one to be more flexible
- Weakness: Less guarantee of success when it comes to finding a solution. Unstructured and unconnected. Can become an excuse for lack of concentration and effort.
Manipulate §
- Structure and restructure compositions
- Strength: Test different structural and functional relationships. If the components manipulated are independent, then they can be tested without damaging the whole structure
- Weakness: Structural changes may not be enough to solve the problem. Sometimes new elements are necessary. Success of manipulation is dependent on the limitations you set for yourself.
Copy §
- Reproduce something as accurately as possible.
- Strength: No safety or personal bias intrudes. It lengthens the lifetime of the original. It removes risk and adds security.
- Weakness: Rigid and produces nothing new. Can be seen as an excuse to not think.
Interpret §
- Transform an original concept or composition into your own terms.
- Strength: When you have interpreted something, you have assimilated it and added something of yourself. It forces understanding and personalization.
- Weakness: High bias. Can mislead people. Requires being clear with intent.
- Change composition or structure.
- Strength: Can make an unacceptable solution into an effective one.
- Weakness: Many structural transformations are irreversible. It may require making copies first. In some cases, restructuring may also be a waste of time — essentially trying to fix what is unworkable
Translate §
- Express a concept or idea in slightly different terms.
- Strength: Changes perspective or point of view with respect to a problem. Makes information more accessible and compatible with certain changes.
- Weakness: It may affect the way the concept is received by someone else. Can be misleading or hide similarities between translations.
Expand §
- Enlarge or add detail for some purpose. Explore an idea in greater detail.
- Strength: Develops a basic structure which can be further elaborated. Good for development and testing.
- Weakness: Dependent on the foundations upon which expansion is taking place. Expanding a rotten foundation is a waste of time. Does not examine the structure of a solution itself.
Reduce §
- Contract and simplify a solution to basic concepts.
- Strength: Allows us to focus on the essentials. Can provide a different, more objective perspective. Good for memorization and recall.
- Weakness: Loss or mutation of information. Risks oversimplification. Requires prudence in knowing what to reduce. Risks fixation on a simple solution and thus requires willingness to complexify the solution
Exaggerate §
- To push a situation to its limits
- Strength: Good testing strategy since it pushes the solution to its limit. Useful for emphasis in humor or communication. Also good for learning — exaggerate the correct approach
- Weakness: Can lead to misunderstanding. Can lead to disbelief if used too much. Destructive if applied to a delicate situation. Can distort perspective
Understate §
- De-emphasize and restrain.
- Strength: De-emphasizing can still be impactful (and thus still good for emphasis). Good for learning by understating incorrect approaches. Good for testing as well.
- Weakness: Pushes a state to the extreme. Leads to deception, misunderstanding, overemphasis and triteness. Can be destructive. Can distort perspective.
Adapt §
- Changes what we have to something that can meet a new problem. The trick is to break fixation and see the problem from a new angle.
- Strength: Leads to Ingenious, effortless and novel solutions to a problem.
- Weakness: We may find ourselves forcing something to work than looking for something that could do the job much more simply.
Substitute §
- Substitute one solution for one with higher potential, often by replacing an element within a structure.
- Strength: Totally escapes the limitations of one alternative and replaces it with another.
- Weakness: Can take a lot of time and energy to the point it is better to be adaptive. If used too early, it may also substitute a solution that has yet to bear fruit.
Combine §
- Bring things together in close relationship
- Strength: Makes a more complete and stronger whole out of separate parts. Can save time by combining two tasks to one. Combining two things also helps test how they behave when put together. Can simplify by combining ideas or concepts.
- Weakness: The constituents being combined may not be synergistic. Must weigh the loss of importance of combined elements against the value of the combination of the whole.
Separate §
- Pull things apart.
- Strength: Simplifies. Inhibits certain reactions and destructive interactions. Separation from context helps in identification and analysis.
- Weakness: Often the qualities of the synthesized whole are lost when it is decomposed. Can be destructive because it keeps things from interacting. Requires prudence in choosing how to decompose the whole since there are many ways to do it (some not beneficial)
Change §
- Try a new strategy or a new approach.
- Strength: Probably the most important strategy. It gives a fresh perspective and combats fixation.
- Weakness: Change can be disruptive and may be done prematurely which prevents a solution from bearing fruit. Requires setting a transition period
Vary §
- Involves only small changes or alterations in strategy
- Strength: Can give great reward with little effort. Gives continuity to a trial and error process. Makes use of pre-existing structures, saving time and effort.
- Weakness: The validity of varying as a strategy depends on the structure that is being manipulated. Very focused and short sighted. Dependent on what is being used to guide variation.
Cycle §
- Move between several different strategies or processes.
- Strength: Allows us to effectively carry out different activities simultaneously (i.e. via context switching). Prevents us from being trapped on one sub-problem or from working on one aspect of a problem in more detail than others
- Weakness: The downsides of context switching is that it may allocate more time to context switching than doing work. Many processes require warm up to become effective. It may be better to repeat a given approach several times before jumping on to another approach.
Repeat §
- Try the same process or strategy another time.
- Strength: Good for learning, emphasis, and reinforcement. May give the greatest gains with the least efforts.
- Weakness: Needless repetition is one of the great enemies of creativity. Has diminishing returns. Reliant on external change for its success.
Systemize §
- Externalize the decision making process and to develop a set of rules or procedures for governing actions. The strategy behind establishing habits.
- Strength: Less cognitive load and so the process is much quicker. Good if there are recurring elements in certain kinds of problems, in which case it simplifies solving these problems.
- Weakness: Most open problems do not lend themselves well to systematization. Establishing a system tends to be inflexible. Easy to be complacent by systemizing.
Randomize §
- Removes all order or structure and simulates randomness.
- Strength: Often a good remedy to overly rational thinking. Helps remove bias and fixations.
- Weakness: Conscious randomization is difficult is not sustainable. Risky.
Links §