System Contradictions

Abstract

This chapter will explore the main ideas of System Contradictions and concepts created by using Inventive Principles. Waking up in the morning supplies the first contradiction of the day. Should I get out of bed or return to sleep? The reasons to get out of bed are many: go to work, school, and feed the baby. We consider many more choices and their pursuant contradictions until we are sleeping again. The contradictions continue in our dreams. Five minutes ago, my wife called me, providing me with the choice of answering the phone or continuing to write this chapter. She asked me which color shoes she should buy white or yellow. White shoes are good with many styles and colors of clothing. Yellow shoes are only good with some clothing colors. However, yellow is more attractive to her. My wife finally bought the yellow shoes and returned them after 2 weeks. We can distill all our problems with a conflict or contradiction between different choices. The first choice is good for something and bad for something else. The same is true for the second choice. Where should we go for vacation? Which woman (or man, as the case may be) should I marry? How should I spend my time: writing a book or going to a baseball game? To write a book is good for my readers and my business, but so is supporting my favorite team. Going to the baseball game is good for my entertainment and the team’s revenue, but it helps neither my readers nor my business. We are all experienced in life’s contradictions and the difficulty of choosing the best alternative. Therefore, our life is a continuous stream of contradictions. Human-created systems (products, processes, or services) also have contradictions. Every step during system development has contradictions. In our life, contradictions are the differences between the choices we must make. In our created systems, contradictions are the differences between system parameters. Altshuller called these parameter differences System Contradictions. In various TRIZ publications, we find different names for this type of contradiction, Technical Contradiction or Engineering Contradiction, for instance. Here we are using the name System Contradiction because it most accurately reflects the meaning of conflict in a system. After studying thousands of problems, products, and processes, Genrich Altshuller found the 39 most often used parameters that cause System Contradictions. He found that the same problems were usually solved repeatedly using about 40 groups of fundamental Inventive Principles. To find which of these Inventive Principles to use for a given System Contradiction, Altshuller created a Matrix of Contradictions. Altshuller Matrix helps the reader select combinations of conflicting parameters and reveal the Inventive Principles for resolving each of these combinations.