
TRIZ – Theory of Inventive Problem Solving - d99kris
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIZ
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hcarvalhoalves
Thank you for sharing this OP, never heard about it before.

Christopher Alexander (architect and influencer of GoF's original software
Design Patterns) very cleverly re-frames design problems in one of his books
[1] as optimization problems, where the designer is tasked with minimizing the
tension between two or more conflicting requirements arranged as a graph, and
where each requirement interacts positively or negatively with it's
neighbours. By representing a design problem this way, it follows that
"solving" it amounts to clustering requirements together to form sub-
components that interact well together, or redefining the solution/context
boundaries to re-frame the problem and minimize the overall tension.

It's interesting how this TRIZ framework arrives at many similar insights
about the design problem, and I wonder what you get by mixing the two
approaches. A lot of what makes it hard to apply is also what makes
Christopher's framework hard to apply, which is clear definition of the
requirements in the first place. C-K theory seems to overcome these
limitations but I haven't played with it yet.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notes_on_the_Synthesis_of_Form](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notes_on_the_Synthesis_of_Form)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-K_theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-K_theory)

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fsloth
Notes on the synthesis of forms is an awesome book! It really is about systems
design in general - the graph based view is the concrete formulation of the
fact that elements of the system affect each other amd if these connections
are not made explicit in the design process then the components will still be
connected - albeit in hidden and accidental ways which will make the system
development into a neverending game of whac-a-mole problem fixing.

In retrospect this may sound obvious and trivial but taking this simple graph
based view of the basis of systems design as the fundamental idea gives
concreteness to e.g. lot of software systems practices and unifies them.

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avmich
Recently a book for kids was published, in Russian, which describes TRIZ in an
easy manner.

[http://fictionbook.ru/static/trials/09/81/13/09811350.html](http://fictionbook.ru/static/trials/09/81/13/09811350.html)

Main character, a boy called Denis frequently sees problems around him, which
allow him to apply his TRIZ skills. The book has explanation and problems, so
the reader can try to learn the method.

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ipsum2
Man, I really want to read this. Wonder if there's an English version. Is it
worth reading?

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avmich
I'd say yes it's worth reading. The material is pretty basic, as it's targeted
on 10 years old. The book came I think only in 2012, I'm not sure if there is
an English version.

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varjag
The Wikipedia article has no criticism section.

It might be great as taxonomy of problem solutions, but there is no reliable
evidence that it works as a methodology. Reducing research activity to a bunch
of codified chess-like moves is a huge temptation. However I haven't seen its
adepts producing any unexpected results (in practice, not on some TRIZ
textbook puzzle). The solutions were on par with what you'd expect from a
person of comparable intelligence, experience and education background
otherwise.

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graeham
I learned it as part of my 2nd year mechanical engineering design course. It
was a great way to teach concept generation to novices and expand awareness of
alternative solutions. As our experiance grows, we become more aware of the
possibilities. I don't think any of our class still uses TRIZ in their
professional work, but learning the process of seeking inventive solutions
from other applications is critical.

A parallel is perhaps biomimetics [1], an active current research area of
'design inspired by life/ biology'. Often, it is controversial if the
invention was truely inspired by nature, or just made for good marketing.
'Shark skin' swimsuits were named by marketers after the actual invention [2].
Our experiance with heavier-than-air flight was terrible until we _stopped_
trying to mimic how birds fly.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomimetics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomimetics)
[2] [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/swimsuit-is-not-
li...](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/swimsuit-is-not-like-shark-
skin-6699673.html)

~~~
varjag
Had bionics (the older name of biomemetics) on tip of the tongue for analogy
sake too, but felt am not familiar enough with it. I however worked and shared
hobbies with a few people who were into TRIZ: our alma mater was one of the
hubs. Never seen it make a difference, but maybe it has its merits as
pedagogic tool.

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drcode
This somewhat reminds me of the "symbolic AI" software before the first AI
winter in the early 90s... It looks like the methodolgy is making progress
towards a solution, and you are able to find answers for heavily stylized
sample problems...

...but then you realize a lot of the complexity is just hidden behind your
definitions for the words in the TRIZ matrix (or in the case of "symbolic AI",
in the precise semantic meaning you are assuming for the symbols)

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gene-h
You should check out the idea of function structures. Functions structures are
a symbolic means of representing the functions a electromechanical product
must perform in order to do its job.[0] The cool thing about function
structures is that you can go from a function structure to a simplified
conceptual model of a product. For example, one can replace the function
convert electrical energy to mechanical energy with a motor. Unfortunately,
the same function structure can translate to many different possible products,
some of which don't make any real world sense.

For instance, for a carrot slicing machine you might end up with a solution
that uses the forward motion of the whole device in conjunction with an
airfoil to create the force to cut the carrot. While plausible, this is not
the best solution.

If some of these problems could be fixed, we'd essentially have a hardware
description language for mechanical engineering. And with this we could do the
same sorts of design automation the semiconductor industry has been doing
except for mechanical systems.

[0]
[http://enterprise.mie.uic.edu/me250/files/1113/4688/4799/woo...](http://enterprise.mie.uic.edu/me250/files/1113/4688/4799/wood_stone_function_basis_jmd.pdf)

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monomyth
ТРИЗ is awesome, as well as Altshuller's sci-fi writings.

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bananamansion
nice

