Language/Multiple-languages/Culture/How-to-be-Creative

If we look at our surroundings, we can find potential improvements in our life. They are mostly trivia, however, they are many. In language learning, the skill of creation also helps.

In this lesson, we will learn about the theory of inventive problem solving, and then see how it can be applied to language learning.

In progress

In the college as an undergraduate, I took the course “TRIZ”. It is the initialism for “теория решения изобретательских задач”, theory of inventive problem solving. TRIZ is used mostly in engineering, especially in mechanical engineering. It is created by Genrich Altshuller, who gathered ideas of innovations and tried to find out their patterns. His works were seen by Joseph Stalin, then he was sent to a labour camp. After Khrushchev Thaw took power, he was freed and his ideas started to be valued.

Contradiction Matrix

There are several methods to try to innovate. The most prominent one is the “contradiction matrix”, which is accompanied by 40 principles. If you want to improve one aspect and keep another aspect unchanged, then you can find the corresponding cell for these two values in the matrix, with the aspect to be improved as the row and the aspect to be kept as the column. There are numbers in a cell, which are the corresponding numbers of the 40 principles. Then you can try to innovate with the principles in the cell.

A PDF version is here:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1_Le_francais_-_40_principes_d%27invention,_2_L%27anglais_-_40_principles_of_invention,_3_L%27anglais_-_Contradiction_Matrix_in_TRIZ_method.pdf

For example, if you would like to increase your productivity and keep the reliability, then you can find the corresponding cell with 01 35 10 38. According to 01 “division”, you may divide your tasks into smaller goals; according to 35 “changing state, parameters, properties of materials”, you may eat well, sleep well, have a good mood; according to 10 “pre-eliminary action”, you may move distractions out of your reach; according to 38 “strong oxidants”, you may drink some hydrogen peroxide and die, or seriously: keep the oxygen gas in your room high, which means to ventilate, or even understand it psychologically: get inspired.