Heinrich Altshuller was not only a Soviet engineer-inventor but also a science fiction writer. He was convinced that fantasy and creativity had to be developed from early childhood. The scientist began describing his theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ) in 1946 and began to use it widely in the 1960s and 1970s. Initially, the theory contained recommendations for creative problem solving for inventors. But in practice, the methodology was also suitable for many other situations, so it was taught under different names in pre-school and higher education institutions and was used in production.
Heinrich Altshuller argued that different problems can be solved in typical ways. His method is based on 40 types of problems, 76 solution methods, and a special algorithm of actions (ARIZ - an algorithm for solving inventive problems). The main thing is to be able to bring the problem to a certain pattern and apply one of the known solutions to it. The book "Find An Idea" describes in detail the author's technique. The scientist gives examples of tasks and reflections that lead to a successful outcome. Also, the author tells why he developed his methodology, how and where it can be applied, and what it will give to those who seek to develop their thinking.
Quote from the
book:
"History teaches: all major inventions are made by non-specialists because the required specialty simply does not exist yet: the inventor becomes the first specialist. Where could the first specialists on steamships come from when there was only a sailing fleet ?! The watchmaker and artist Fulton invented the steamer. Steam locomotive by the mining engineer Stephenson. The plane was the Wright brothers and the seaman mozhaisky. Everyone knows this, but the fear of going beyond the limits of the specialty does not disappear" © GS Altshuller
Unfortunately, the book is only obtainable in the Russian language, we will update you as soon as an English translation is available. Don't forget to subscribe to the Gallery of thoughts.
If you want the book, you can find it on Amazon right here.
Critical Thinking Book 2: "How to solve it" - Polya J.
Gyorgy Poya (in English George Poya) is a Hungarian and American mathematician, educator, and popularizer of science. His main works are devoted to numbers theory, functional analysis, mathematical statistics, and combinatorics. Polya worked at Stanford University and the Zurich University in Switzerland. He devoted a lot of time to working with math teachers and wrote several books on solving math problems. As his teaching method, Polya chose heuristics - the empirical approach to find solutions.
In the book How to Solve it, the author just refers to this method, which was used before in engineering, but not in mathematics. Polya offered simple recipes: go through the conditions of the problem, understand what is given and what is unknown, draw up a plan and find logical connections between all stages of the solution. The author calls any mathematical result, even the solution of the simplest problem, a "mathematical discovery." The book will be of interest to both teachers and students because it answers two questions: "How to learn to solve?" and "How to teach to solve?".
Quote from the
book:
Perhaps there are no discoveries, either in elementary or higher mathematics or even, perhaps, in any other field that could have been made ... without analogy © D. Poya
You can find the book on Amazon right here.
Critical Thinking Book 3: "The Art of Problem Solving" - Ackoff Russell
Russell Ackoff is an American scientist in the field of "systems approach" in management, cyberneticist, economist, and philosopher. Ackoff is an ideologue of systems thinking and the author of several dozen books and hundreds of articles on corporate planning and management (for example, "Management in the 21st century. Corporate transformation", "Introduction to operations research"). The scientist is a supporter of a creative approach and creative understanding of any complex processes.
In the preface of the book, the author writes that he is literally engaged in "problem-solving." He talks about the process of finding these solutions and calling it art. Ackoff gives real-life examples of difficult situations analyze them and describe how to cope with them. His book is filled with philosophical reflections and light humor. As the author ironically notes, he made all the illustrations of the book to lure in his daughter Karen, this was the only way to make her read his book.
Quote
from the book:
Oftentimes, problem-solving is directed at the symptoms, not the causes. This is especially true for social issues. For example, we define crime as a social problem and try to solve it by isolating the offender from society. However, crime continues to rise and ample evidence suggests that prisoners are more likely to commit new crimes once they are released from prison. Thus, it becomes more and more obvious that crime is a symptom, not a disease, and that we do not pay due attention to the study of the causes of crime © R. Ackoff
You can find the book on Amazon right here.
Critical Thinking Book 4: "Lateral Thinking" - De Bono E.
Edward De Bono is a British psychologist, writer, and expert in creative thinking. He received his doctorates in medicine and law and taught at various times at Oxford, Cambridge, and Harvard. In 1967, the scientist coined the term "lateral thinking", which means "The ability to think outside the box." For his work, De Bono received several awards, including the Order of Merit from the President of Malta, and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Economics. Today he is one of the most respected experts on creativity in the world.
The book "Lateral Thinking" tells about the way to think without patterns and stereotypes but allows for the possibility of error if it helps to find the right answer. According to the author, such a skill can be mastered in the same way as mathematics or logic. De Bono clearly shows the differences between the traditional (vertical) and lateral (lateral) types of thinking and suggests methods for its development.
Quote from the
book:
Even if you are currently quite satisfied with a particular view of a thing, it makes sense from time to time to start looking for another view of the same thing © E. De Bono
You can find the book on Amazon right here.
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