How to Invent (Almost) Anything

396 Pages·2011·4.85 MB·English

by  David Straker

How To Invent (Almost) Anything

Serious Innovation
using
Science and Psychology

by
David Straker and Graham Rawlinson
Copyright © David Straker and Graham Rawlinson, 2001, 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means now know
or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording or in any
information storage and retrieval system without permission from the authors.
Formatted in Times New Roman and Arial by David Straker
Cover illustration by Heledd Straker
Contents

Preface

Toolbox 1: Logical
1 Analytical Invention
Break things down and question them. Simple and powerful.

Part A: Simple Science
2 Simple Science
Energy, matter, space and time. That’s all you have to invent with.
3 A Simple Science Lens
Looking at friction through an unconventional lens.
4 Applied Simple Science
Hinges, bottle-tops, levers, nuts and bolts, knives. All fall before
simple science!

Toolbox 2: Scientific
5 Basic TRIZ
Here’s how 200,000 patentees did it.
6 The TRIZ 7-step process
Simplified TRIZ for speedier invention.

Part B: Psychobabble
7 How the Brain Works
We are just pattern machines. That’s all.
8 The Motivating Fire
Survival = Control + Identity + Novelty. The fires that make us do what
we do.
9 Managing in a Complex World
Sense, understand, decide, act. There’s many a slip.

Toolbox 3: Psychological
10 Getting Past the Blocks
Go under, around, through. Just don’t get blocked.
11 Stimulating Ideas
How to set yourself on fire!

Part C: Putting it all together

Toolbox 4: Holistic
12 The TAO Process
Cold logic, Simple science, TRIZ and psychology. All in one box.

Epilogue
Appendix A: Altshuller’s 39 Parameters
Appendix B: TRIZ Contradiction Matrix
Appendix C: TRIZ 40 principles
Not-a-bibliography
Preface

When you open a door you usually have some notion of what may lie behind
it. You also have some intent in opening the door. Now you have opened this
book, do you know why are you here? As authors we do not know your
particular journey, so all we can do is to paint a picture of the rooms you are
about to explore.
Some of the rooms in this book are quiet places where you can sit and relax,
just taking in what you see, reflecting on it and pondering the meaning you find
there. These are the reading rooms where you can learn about what goes on in
our heads when we are trying to be creative, or the basic principles of science.
There is no examination at the end, so take from them what you will and do not
worry. Browse, pick up, put down, let your thoughts wander. If you put energy
into challenging what we suggest then make it fun so you have more energy after
the challenge than before. Do not waste your energy in fighting ghosts!
Some of the rooms are activity rooms. They have a different pace, a get-up-
and-do pace. Do not go into these rooms unless you want to do something. Enter
them only if you are safe from interruptions–you will not want to break away
from an ideas session just at the point of that brilliant notion. Have things to
record your activity, whether it is big sheets of paper or a tape recorder or even a
video camera. Do not be embarrassed about taping your thoughts. This may
seem crazy but it provides great material for reflection, learning and the next
groundbreaking ideas.
We have all created many exciting ideas in our heads, and at the eureka point
of discovery we thought that this was it! But in the cold light of the next dawn
the glamour and glee may have faded, leaving ordinary-seeming ideas that die in
the still glare of cold criticism.
Inventing is not just about the thing you invent; it is about passion, about
excitement, about commitment. When you are doing your inventing, if you can
see and steer your own internal state, creating and fuelling your own passion,
you will find that you have the sustainable energy that is necessary to drive those
ideas through from conception to completion.
To be a great inventor, you must thus be both a scientist and a psychologist,
engineering both the world around you and the world within. This book supports
this cause by painting its rooms from the deep blue of human and scientific
understanding to the vermillion hues of action, challenge and excitement.
Inventing is like love. You can read about it, or you can do it–and there is a
big difference between the two. Doing involves chase, teasing, courage,
confusion, persistence, excitement and passion. And the more you do it the more
you learn and the better you become. So–enter here the brave and determined.
Choose a future that is full of stimulation, passion and invention. And most of
all, Have fun!

Graham and Dave
Toolbox 1: Logical

Creativity and logic sometimes seem to be at the opposite ends of the
spectrum. Far from it--logic is the first tool of all inventors. Many inventive
and creative problems have been solved by cold, hard analysis and thinking.
You do not always have to daydream and get into the fluffy stuff to solve every
problem (although this does become necessary for those problems which do not
succumb to the logical approach).
Analytical Invention
1

When we started to write this book, we began in the deep theory, but on
reviewing it concluded that it would be more helpful to begin with something
more immediately useful. If you read no further than this chapter and then go
and apply the methods described here, you should be able to invent with the
same approach as many great engineers and inventors of the past (although we
hope you read on, of course, increasing your skills still further).
There is a whole range of approaches that can be used to create new ideas,
ranging from a structured, analytical approach to softer, more conceptual
methods. For many inventions, the analytical methods, though simple, are very
effective and this is where we will start.
The basis of analytical invention is very simple. First, you decompose,
breaking things down into manageable pieces and then you and examine,
question and consequently improve the individual parts.
Decomposition

A standard scientific and engineering approach to problems is to decompose
the item in question into smaller elements which can be dealt with on an
individual basis. This general principle gives rise to a number of methods which
are described below.
Chunking
The brain understands things in distinct chunks (see Chapter 8), building
large chunks out of smaller chunks. Thus a tree is made from leaves, twigs and
branches. We can use this principle of hierarchical analysis to understand many
inventive situations.
The simplest method of chunking is to break things down into their
individual parts, thus a keyboard may be broken down into keys, casing and
connector, with the connector breaking down into sheath, screw, and pin
assembly, and so on. The inventive eye can then be focused on very specific
aspects, such as the force required to push the pins into the sockets or the ease
with which the connector casing can be grasped.
We can also chunk up, looking at the big picture. This is particularly useful
in the early stages of invention when you are asking questions like, ‘what is the
real problem here?’ As you chunk up further, you will get to more general,
broader areas. You can also then chunk back down through different branches to
discover new areas of focus. For example, in Fig. 1.1, we chunk up from
supporting a tent to the general problem of support, and then back down to
specific alternative ways of providing support.
A trick of chunking is in the questions you ask as you chunk up or down. By
changing the questions, you will discover different things. A simple alternative
is shown in Fig.1.1, where you chunk down by asking ‘how’ and chunk up by
asking ‘why’. You could also ask ‘What is the benefit of doing this?’ to chunk
down, and ‘What problems are solved by doing this?’ to chunk up.

Fig. 1.1 Chunking

Chunking is a valuable technique around social or other intangible areas
where you can get into more detail by asking such questions as ‘What,
specifically?’ or ‘How does that happen?’ Thus Federal Express found its
famous ‘Hub and spokes’ strategy by chunking up to look at the bigger picture
and the overall purpose, then finding an alternative approach followed by
chunking down in the details of how this might work.
Attribute Analysis