TRIZ was born initially for inventions, and used by engeneers. Altshuller examinated many inventions patented in soviet industries, and observed how they were done out of the knowledges in applicated sciences of their time. After that, he tried to build an algorythm in order to develop the creativity to solve inventive problems, or (which is the same) in order to solve with invention the problems.
After its application in Design, Architectures, Economy and Project Management, the actual ambitions of TRIZ are concerning the proceeds of research in every fields (Health, Physics, Social...). Far from a neutrality, the jump from invention (making, building) to discovery put many questions of creativity and in general its individual method - without considering necessary the "social" necessity of creativity, like in management of entreprise and even in the community of intellectuals. In other words, even if it could be redacted with several people, TRIZ points out most of all the problem of the method of creativity (or in general the full development of a creative person), here associated with the "invention", which has to do with the production of something new starting from a problem.
After its application in Design, Architectures, Economy and Project Management, the actual ambitions of TRIZ are concerning the proceeds of research in every fields (Health, Physics, Social...). Far from a neutrality, the jump from invention (making, building) to discovery put many questions of creativity and in general its individual method - without considering necessary the "social" necessity of creativity, like in management of entreprise and even in the community of intellectuals. In other words, even if it could be redacted with several people, TRIZ points out most of all the problem of the method of creativity (or in general the full development of a creative person), here associated with the "invention", which has to do with the production of something new starting from a problem.
According to this theory, every problem can proceed in 360 degrees direction. Facing a problem, we are free to move in every sense. But the solution (which has to be always postulated as possible) lays somewhere, very probably out of the actual knowledges, but in the order of faisable. This theory leaves the scientist/engeneer held tight between the limits of his concrete situation (with its restrictions and its necessity) and the laws of Nature, by finding a so-called "contradiction" who has to be got over. The interest in this theory is its qualitative side: every steps here is written in words, and not in numbers, for the first (Initial situation /undesirable effects), and second step (problem /technical contradiction), at least until the Ideal Final Result (the fourth step is the physical solution, and finally the last is the engineerign solution), this kind of platonic idea there out of realization since the beginning, but which one can't really understand.
The contradiction is the most relevant moment of TRIZ. There is no TRIZ without searching the contradictions of the system one takes into account. But contradiction is the wrong name. "Contradiction" means in logics A = not-A. In TRIZ, it doesn't seem possible to solve an ontological contradiction. "Contradiction" is in this case, and from a logical point of view, the contrary. Contradiction is a general word for understanding what could be impossible to realize.
Just to take an exemple: if I want to create a new powerful and ecological LCD-screen, I could think about the limite of the number of set of lamps for one the size I'm considering (limits of situation), and the limits of energetic power for a set of lamps (limits of nature). Here I have to formulate the contradiction by explaining, by words (always really easy terms), my constraints.
Starting from now, there's an artificial work on the vocabulary, and, most of all, a permanent work of revision of the system. Here I have to formulate the function of the system, then the anti-system function, before doing the feature of your system function. But if you cannot find the solution by your words, you have to develop synonyms and antonyms: it's a very semantical formal moment, that let you think in a different and qualitative point of view.
So, because the contradiction is the contrary, the contradiction in its proper meaning can't be solved: if a contradiction will be presented, there will be no solution (which activates the round systamatic revision). So, the meaning of the contrary is to avoid a real contradiction. The invention avoids the capital difficulty, the highest risk of all aporia, the real contradiction, like the one between the thinkable and the not thinkable, the ideal and the not-ideal.
From this point of view, there's no possibility for TRIZ, and for every theory for engeeners who wants to convey creativity into an algorythm of production: because is just facing the contradiction without artificial means of revision or reformulation, that one has to transform himself and his convictions, in order to really invent a discovery, to really think metephoracally and not with a list of synonyms, and interrupt the format given from the material object. The laws of Nature are written nowhere, and the situation is the one we are contributing to live.
In the end, TRIZ remains a kind of inventive reactionnary theory, which opens real problems and perspectives about the limits of an absolute creativity. Here we have to think the limits of research, management of knowledges and production, and material inventions.
Just to take an exemple: if I want to create a new powerful and ecological LCD-screen, I could think about the limite of the number of set of lamps for one the size I'm considering (limits of situation), and the limits of energetic power for a set of lamps (limits of nature). Here I have to formulate the contradiction by explaining, by words (always really easy terms), my constraints.
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From D. Kucharavy Slides, November 2012. |
So, because the contradiction is the contrary, the contradiction in its proper meaning can't be solved: if a contradiction will be presented, there will be no solution (which activates the round systamatic revision). So, the meaning of the contrary is to avoid a real contradiction. The invention avoids the capital difficulty, the highest risk of all aporia, the real contradiction, like the one between the thinkable and the not thinkable, the ideal and the not-ideal.
From this point of view, there's no possibility for TRIZ, and for every theory for engeeners who wants to convey creativity into an algorythm of production: because is just facing the contradiction without artificial means of revision or reformulation, that one has to transform himself and his convictions, in order to really invent a discovery, to really think metephoracally and not with a list of synonyms, and interrupt the format given from the material object. The laws of Nature are written nowhere, and the situation is the one we are contributing to live.
In the end, TRIZ remains a kind of inventive reactionnary theory, which opens real problems and perspectives about the limits of an absolute creativity. Here we have to think the limits of research, management of knowledges and production, and material inventions.