How to generate idea/solutions to solve a problem?

post by warrenjordan · 2021-10-29T00:53:15.941Z · LW · GW · No comments

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    4 habryka
    2 GuySrinivasan
    1 abstractapplic
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Are any rationality techniques one could leverage to generate ideas or solutions towards solving a specific problem?

This is probably the biggest obstacle for me to have effective goal factoring. I sometimes cannot come up with good ideas or alternatives. 

I found this post [LW · GW], however it's 9 years old and wanted to see if there are any more recent techniques. 

Answers

answer by habryka · 2021-10-29T07:35:24.812Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

The Babble and Prune [? · GW] sequence might also be relevant here. 

answer by SarahSrinivasan (GuySrinivasan) · 2021-10-29T04:07:04.002Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

TRIZ - Wikipedia

This is a pointer to a large categorization of techniques used for physical innovation. Elsewhere on the internet it has been adapted for software innovation. Try picking techniques randomly to see if you can creatively interpret them to provide a novel solution to your problem, repeat until inspired.

↑ comment by warrenjordan · 2021-10-29T05:50:58.447Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Ah, I've heard of this method before but never tried it. 

Wondering if you had any recommended resources for using this for software innovation? 

Replies from: GuySrinivasan
↑ comment by SarahSrinivasan (GuySrinivasan) · 2021-10-29T19:14:16.211Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

This was all right -ish, replacing the very physical principles. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2432096 Not inspired but fine to try.

This is a copy of a format I used with my team: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1guFRreqNUS6JUauBpWumCYoWilWorbkcnpBIg-yVJKQ/edit?usp=sharing It worked decently well for generating very new ideas.

I'm not sure I recommend either of them, but they're fine.

answer by abstractapplic · 2021-10-29T15:35:54.272Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Disclaimer: I've never tried any of these things on real problems, they just seem like obvious answers.

The oldschool answer is to use Tarot or the Oblique Strategies, creatively interpret what you draw in the context of your problem, and evaluate whether that's an improvement over what you're currently doing. Personally, I'm more fond of the modern counterpart, Weird Sun Twitter's "Have you tried X?" meme, as incarnated here, here and here.

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