An inventor deserves and must allow himself the same freedom of creativity as an innovator - an artist. He needs to be able to test the right idea, imagine The best decision problems and at the same time temporarily disregard the laws (norms) established in the world.

Only in this way can the image of the ideal be created. The expression "conscious self-deception" is used in synectics to express the fact that a person, problem solver, must be relaxed in relation to the laws of nature that are in conflict with his ideal solution. A person solving a problem must see which laws of the surrounding world are in conflict with his ideal solution.

The classical specialist tends to be over-rationalistic and feels threatened by anything that might “attack” his logical universe. The synector must be able to temporarily distance himself from existing inconsistencies in order to prevent them from stopping the process of creative work. A fantastic analogy serves to facilitate this process.

The essence of the fantastic analogy is to use fabulous means to solve the problem (for example, with a magic wand), defining the final result, the goal. Thus, in synectics the construction operator is implemented purely functional model desired solution. Another direction in which the device is developing fantastic analogies, is the denial of physical laws that interfere with approaching a solution or create a feeling of familiarity and ease of the problem being solved.

The complex of tools used in synectics is far from being limited to the analogies and techniques presented above. Constant practice of applying the method has made it possible to develop techniques for in-depth presentation of the initial situation and means for its initial processing. In the solution process, psychophysiological activation operators are also used.

The solutions that sinectors offer often seem original, sometimes ordinary, ordinary, but it should be borne in mind that the basis and greatest volume of the work of sinectors is not in solving the problem, but in posing it, in the ability to see an unexpected angle, turn, emphasis. The problems posed are, as a rule, not complex and could be solved using other methods, but usually solutions are found soon after the situation is clarified, so additional funds, as a rule, are not involved.

So, synectics is a means for setting goals.

Actually finding a solution with its help is a consequence of the well-known proposition that correct positioning the problem is half the solution. Let us remember one of the sinectors’ mottos: “Formulated problems are solved.”

1. Formation of synectic groups

Although the mechanisms of synectics are simple in their basics, their application requires enormous amounts of energy. In fact, synectics does not cancel the process of creative activity, but it activates thinking, making it more intense. What makes the work even more intense is its collective nature. The group within which the decision takes place is a complex and subtle mechanism that takes a long time to create and requires specific training from both students and teachers.

The process of formation of a synectic group consists of three main phases:

1. Selection of group members.

2. Training, group training.

3. Implantation of the group into a real environment (into a real environment).

Techniques of using analogies refer to methods of psychological activation of creative thinking. The most interesting method using analogies is “Synectics” - a method of solving inventive problems and searching for new business ideas by a group of specialists who widely use various types of analogies. This method was proposed by W. Gordon (USA) in 1952. It is based on the property human brain establish connections between words, concepts, feelings, thoughts, impressions, i.e. establish associative connections. This leads to the fact that a single word, observation, etc. can cause in the mind a reproduction of previously experienced thoughts, perceptions, and “turn on” rich information from past experience to solve the task. Analogy is a good stimulator of associations, which in turn stimulate creativity. There are many examples of analogies, among which the following can be noted:

Direct analogy, in accordance with which a search for solutions to similar problems, business ideas, examples of similar processes in other fields of knowledge is carried out with further adaptation of these solutions to one’s own problem.

Personal analogy suggests imagining yourself as the object with which the problem is connected, and trying to talk about “your” feelings and ways to solve a technical problem or business problem.

Symbolic analogy differs in that when formulating an inventive task or business problem, images, comparisons and metaphors are used that reflect its essence. Using a symbolic analogy allows you to more clearly and concisely describe the problem at hand.

Fantastic analogy proposes to introduce into an inventive task or business problem fantastic means or characters that perform what is required by the conditions of the task. The meaning of this technique is that the mental use of fantastic means often helps to detect false or excessive restrictions that interfere with finding a solution to a problem or coming up with a new business idea.

On initial stage“Synectics” analogies are used to most clearly identify and assimilate the essence of the problem being solved by participants. Obvious solutions are abandoned. Then, in the process of a specially organized discussion, the main difficulties and contradictions that impede the solution are identified. New formulations of the problem are developed and goals are defined. In the future, with the help of special questions that evoke analogies, ideas and solutions are searched for. The resulting solutions are evaluated and verified. If necessary, the problem is returned to be discussed again and the ideas obtained earlier are developed.

To successfully use analogies in solving both technical and business problems, special training is required, as well as a person’s ability for imagination and imaginative thinking.

Engineering heuristics Dmitry Anatolyevich Gavrilov

The analogy is direct

The analogy is direct

Let's look at some interesting examples of what a direct analogy is. Roughly speaking, this is the adaptation of previously existing solutions from one area of ​​knowledge or history to another, current task.

Maxim Chertanov in the book “Conan Doyle”, published in the “Life of Remarkable People” series, draws readers’ attention to a number of inventions of his hero during the First World War, from devices against sea mines to camouflage nets for camouflaging artillery crews. Dr. Doyle cared mainly about preserving people's lives, so his thoughts were connected with all possible means of protection. Let us dwell in more detail on only two, since, as it seems to us, they were made entirely in accordance with the method of analogy and the principle of copying.

QUESTION No. 3

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle lived a life worthy of a knight, protecting those in need of help. Two knightly novels by this author are also known - “The White Squad” (1891) and “Sir Nigel” (1906). Their action develops during Hundred Years' War. Simple English archers brought terrible devastation to the ranks of an excellently equipped enemy.

However, Conan Doyle's inventive idea could have saved the lives of thousands of British infantrymen during the First World War, and continues to save the lives of many people around the world to this day. Name his invention.

In February 1915, Conan Doyle made a proposal to the Secretary of War for the production of personal protection for infantrymen covering the most important vital organs:

“Why not cover the chest with a thin and strong steel plate? Dr. Doyle himself performed the experiment (fortunately, not on himself or on a living person at all) and was convinced that the protective plate forced the bullet to deflect. Under no circumstances should a detachment of infantrymen be allowed to march into German trenches under machine-gun fire, losing half their men along the way. If there are no protective equipment for soldiers, it means that infantry cannot be sent into such attacks at all<…>The doctor's appeals were not successful with military officials. Generals and members of the cabinet of ministers spoke of him as an annoying layman..." (Chertanov, 2008)

Now we call it body armor. Although, perhaps, the creator of Sherlock Holmes had an inventive idea not only by analogy with knightly armor. Another of his historical novels, Micah Clark, takes us back to the time of Oliver Cromwell, famous, among other things, for the fact that in 1642 he formed special cavalry units dressed in light armor - cuirasses (and special helmets). These cuirassiers were called “iron-sided.”

But the writer saved even more compatriots not from bullets, but on the water. We are still grateful to his resourcefulness.

QUESTION No. 4

Few people know that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle worked as a ship's doctor on board a whaling ship in the Arctic. A number of Holmes stories have a nautical theme. The writer also had the opportunity to sail in southern waters, and in the same capacity as a ship’s doctor, sail on a steamship to the shores of West Africa.

Despite Conan Doyle's naval experience, on the eve of the First World War the Admiralty was inattentive to this proposal. But after another tragedy at sea, they began the massive and widespread implementation of this writer’s invention. What are we talking about?

It is difficult to imagine now that in the ill-fated year of 1914, when the First World War began, the warships of the British Navy “were not allowed to keep boats, since they could catch fire if hit by a shell and create additional danger. A mine or torpedo fired from a submarine instantly destroyed the entire ship - what an additional danger there was! Doyle wrote about this in the very first days of the war, proposing to still equip ships with a sufficient number of boats, and with the outbreak of battle, launch them and tow them using a boat; representatives of the Admiralty (which was then headed by Winston Churchill) cruelly ridiculed him: “It is unlikely that a government department would thank a person for doing the work assigned to that department.” And helpless people slowly died in the icy water, because it was forbidden to let rescue boats get close to sinking military ships so that they too would not sink...” (Chertanov, 2008)

Then Conan Doyle published an article in which he proposed a simple measure - individual inflatable rings that would allow sailors to stay on the water for at least some time until help arrived. Knowing from experience that the generals would laugh at him again or simply ignore him, he did not even bother to contact them, but immediately launched a campaign on the widest scale in the press. He understood: the War Ministry may neglect the voice of one person, but if it can be convinced, it will be forced to listen to the opinion of the public. The calculation turned out to be correct: all British newspapers wrote almost exclusively about life preservers for several days. The proposal was so simple and clear that the military responded immediately this time: within a week, the Admiralty received an order from rubber product manufacturers to produce 250 thousand circles. The Hampshire Telegraph newspaper wrote that the Admiralty was entirely obliged to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and should thank him. It, of course, did not think to thank him, so the doctor himself was never sure that the admirals followed his recommendation - maybe it was just a coincidence.

Already in October (1914), all crews of flotillas based in the North Sea began to be issued life preservers, shipping them directly from the factories. The Hampshire Telegraph wrote: “The circle is made of rubber, placed in a durable mesh cover and weighs less than three ounces together with it. You can carry it in your pocket, and put it on your neck as expected and inflate it in ten seconds. It is designed to keep a person's head above water indefinitely for a long time“... This thing,” writes M. Chertanov, “as we understand, was subsequently transformed into a life vest (would you agree: from armor to body armor is not such a big step as from the same life-saving armor to inflatable clothing? - Auto.).

Everyone was happy, but Dr. Doyle was not; he understood that this was a half-measure. In the winter sea, if help never comes, the ripples will only prolong the agony. We need boats; and if manufacturers of rubber products can make an inflatable ring, why don’t they make one (instead of a wooden one. - Auto.) inflatable boat?!

He immediately began a new campaign, for the boats, but here he was unable to penetrate the admiral's armor. Churchill responded with a polite letter, but military ships began to be equipped with inflatable boats only during the Second World War. And yet thanks lifebuoys and the fact that a number of wooden boats began to be placed on British ships, many of the people were able to escape..." (Chertanov, 2008)

But this, by the way, is not Conan Doyle’s last inventive idea. Few people know that back in 1913 it was he who proposed building a tunnel under the English Channel in order to provide England with food in case of a naval blockade, and to replace the visible surface route with a submerged route.

A few more examples offhand.

“The French engineer S. Carnot, who laid the foundations of the theory of heat engines at the beginning of the last century, boldly likened the work of such a machine to the work of a water engine. Physical analogy between the transition of heat from a heated body to a cold one and the fall of water from high level to low - an example of a strict analogy based on the essential features of the objects being compared. Reasoning by analogy has produced many brilliant results in science, often completely unexpected.

In the 17th century, the movement of blood in the body was compared to the ebb and flow of the sea. Doctor V. Harvey introduced new analogy- with a pump and came to the fundamental idea of ​​continuous blood circulation.

The chemist D. Priestley took advantage of the analogy between combustion and respiration and, thanks to this, was able to conduct his elegant experiments, which showed that plants restore the air used up in the process of animal respiration or in the process of burning a candle.

D. Herschel discovered that the flame of a spirit lamp becomes bright yellow if you place a little table salt. And if you look at it through a spectroscope, you can see two yellow bands due to the presence of sodium. Herschel suggested that in a similar way one could detect the presence of other chemical elements, and subsequently his idea was confirmed, and arose new section physics - spectroscopy.

I. Mechnikov thought about how the human body fights infection. One day, while observing the transparent starfish larvae, he threw some rose thorns into their cluster; the larvae discovered these spines and “digested” them. Mechnikov immediately connected this phenomenon with what happens to a splinter that gets into a person’s finger: the splinter is surrounded by pus, which dissolves and “digests” foreign body. This is how the theory was born about the presence in animal organisms of a protective device, which consists in the capture and “digestion” of foreign particles by special phagocyte cells, including microbes and the remains of destroyed cells...” (Ivin, 1986, pp. 60–61).

One day in 1816, the French physician and anatomist Rene Laennec, puzzled by the problems of gallantry - for since the time of Hippocrates, doctors had put their ear directly to the patient’s body, including female body- drew attention to the children's fun. The children were playing around the logs of the construction forest. One boy drew a nail along the end of the log, and the other, putting his ear to the other end, listened. So Laennec was struck by the idea of ​​a stethoscope, a description of which, however, was given by him only three years later in his “Treatise on Indirect Auscultation.”

It has already become a classic case when the English bridge designer Samuel Brown solved the problem of overcoming a wide and deep chasm, that is, when it was completely impossible to erect bridge supports either at the bottom or along the edges. The engineer went outside; it was autumn. A cobweb stuck to my cheek. Possessing, undoubtedly, developed associative thinking, he came up with the design of a suspension bridge by analogy (Kedrov, 1987, pp. 90–91). This legend is retold by a lot of authors, including G.S. Altshuller: “The English engineer Samuel Brown lived near the Tweed River. One day, the legend says, Brown was commissioned to build a bridge across the Tweed River that would be durable and at the same time not too expensive. In other words, Brown had to overcome technical contradiction. One day, while walking through his garden, Brown noticed a cobweb stretched across the path. At that very moment the idea occurred to him that a suspension bridge on iron chains could be built in a similar way.”

It is clear, however, that the idea of ​​​​using the same vines and climbing plants to cross rivers arose much earlier than the beginning of the 19th century - in ancient times. And the first suspension bridge with metal elements was patented by the Englishman James Finley and built in Pennsylvania in 1796. By the way, “...a suspension bridge across the Tweed River with a span of 110 m, built in 1820 in England, cost about 4 times cheaper than a stone bridge of the same length. In 1826, the Menaean chain bridge was opened in England, which served for about a hundred years, had a span of 177 m with a boom-to-span ratio of 1/12. During the same period, a number of bridges were built in France, the USA and other countries, the spans of which did not exceed 150 m. Thus, the Meneisky Bridge held a record for the largest span until 1834...” (Smirnov, 1970). It must be assumed that Brown was solving the problem not of a pedestrian bridge, but of a future railway bridge. After all, in 1807, the first trains ran on rails in Britain.

Physicist and mathematician (and part-time paper manufacturer) Joseph-Michel and his brother, architect Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier, were walking along the mountainside on a hot day. From here they watched water vapor rising up from the valley - from the surface of the lake - forming fog. First balloon The brothers made it out of paper. Through an opening at the bottom, they filled the model with hot gases, which were lighter than air until they cooled. Having trained on such a model, by 1783 they lifted first a load into the air on their hot air balloon, then animals, and finally people.

Gases expand when heated; therefore, the weight of the heated air in the ball is less than the weight of the displaced cold air. But the decrease in specific gravity is relatively small, when heated from zero to one hundred degrees Celsius - only 27 percent.

The inventor Jacques-Alexandre Cesar Charles, who observed these first successes, managed to increase the supporting force many times over. In the same year, he proposed using hydrogen instead of hot air. The specific gravity of which is 14 times less than the specific gravity of air.

The rise into the air gave rise to the task of an emergency return to the ground, and a year later Joseph-Michel invented the parachute (unaware of the brilliant developments of Leonardo da Vinci centuries earlier). The folding parachute was already invented by our compatriot, the son of a mechanics professor, a graduate of a military school, and a talented dramatic actor Gleb Evgenievich Kotelnikov in 1910–1911.

“All the inventors of the parachute at that time followed the same path: they placed the parachute in the fuselage of the airplane and tried to create a reliable system capable of deploying it before the pilot left the cockpit. Chance helped G.E. Kotelnikov come up with his parachute. One day he saw an actress he knew take out of a small handbag a large oriental shawl made of very thin but dense silk. Having drawn an analogy (structural and appearance), G.E. Kotelnikov came to the conclusion that the parachute should be foldable, and it should be made not from rubberized tarpaulin, but from light silk.

And the Swiss Georges Demestrel came up with the Velcro fastener after every time after a walk he pulled out the prickly fruits of burdocks from the thick fur of his dog and... etc...” (Learning to invent, 1997).

"AND. Gutenberg came up with the idea of ​​movable type by analogy with coinage. This was the beginning of book printing and the discovery of the “Guttenberg Galaxy,” which transformed the entire human culture.

The first idea of ​​E. Howe, the inventor of the sewing machine, was to combine the point and eye at one end of the needle. How this idea arose is unknown. But his main achievement was that, by analogy with the shuttle used in weaving machines, he made a bobbin that pulled additional thread through the loops made eye of a needle, and thus the machine stitch was born.

V. Westinghouse struggled for a long time with the problem of creating brakes that would simultaneously operate along the entire length of the train. Having read by chance in a magazine that during the construction of a tunnel in Switzerland, a drilling rig is driven by compressed air transmitted from a compressor using a long hose, Westinghouse saw in this the key to solving his problem, etc.” (Ivin, 1986, p. 64).

About how the idea of ​​coal as a protection against poisonous gases arose, Academician N. D. Zelinsky said:

“At the beginning of the summer of 1915, in the Sanitary and Technical Department of the Russian technical society The issue of gas attacks by the enemy and measures to combat them was considered several times. Official reports from the front described in detail the situation of gas attacks, cases of defeat from them and the few cases of rescue of soldiers who were in forward positions. It was reported that those who resorted to such simple means, like breathing through a rag moistened with water or urine, or breathing through loose earth, tightly touching it with your mouth and nose, or, finally, those who covered their heads well with an overcoat and lay calmly during a gas attack were saved. These simple techniques, who saved from suffocation, showed that at that time, at least, the concentration of gases in the air was, although deadly poisonous, still insignificant, since it was possible to save oneself by such simple means.

This last circumstance made a great impression on us, and, then discussing the question of possible measures to combat gas attacks, we decided to try and use a simple remedy, the effect of which would be quite similar to the effect of the matter of a soldier’s overcoat or soil humus. In both cases, toxic substances were not chemically bound, but were absorbed or adsorbed by wool and soil. We thought to find such a remedy in charcoal, the adsorption coefficient of which in relation to permanent gases, as is known, is much greater than for soil.”