Are there rules for creativity? Isn’t this a paradox? No, it is not a paradox. There are rules, procedures, tricks and methods to find solutions to problems, as well as original, imaginative, effective, or surprising results.
Creativity is not only used to create works of art, but also to solve problems. It is curious to observe how the techniques used to solve problems serve to produce creative works and vice versa.
The following is a list of some of the tricks, methods, rules, techniques, algorithms, procedures, tactics, strategies or heuristics that are commonly used in problem solving and also to produce creative works:
- Break the problem down into small problems (simplify, divide and conquer). In the case of creativity, for example, to write a fictional story, one might begin by describing one of its characters
- Analyze extreme cases. Analyze what would happen if any of the variables in the problem had its maximum or minimum value (particular cases, extrapolation).
- Begin by solving simpler, analogous problems (analogy, interpolation). Before writing a book, how about writing a short story or an article?
- Deduce and draw conclusions from a general law (deduction).
- Experiment, observe and extract patterns, rules, symmetries, similarities, regularities (induction).
- Find missing symmetries, explore all combinations, make a map and complete it. Identify dimensions from examples and analyze the gaps. Speculate on the existence of additional dimensions.
- Draw a figure, a diagram, a table, a drawing, etc. that represents the problem.
- Translate the definition of the problem into another language, notation or system of expression of the problem: verbal, algebraic, graphic, numerical … (representation, translation).
- Manipulate and experiment manually (experiment).
- Experiment randomly.
- Trial-and-error method.
- Formulate conjectures and try to prove them.
- Use the “what if…” method.
- Simulate (model the problem and experiment with the model).
- Count the relevant elements of the problem.
- Break the problem down into parts and analyze them individually.
- Make an assessment (measurement) of the complexity of each of the elements of the problem.
- Study the relationships between the elements of the problem.
- The pigeonhole principle (Dirichlet’s principle): M holes can hold at most M objects if each of the objects must be in a different hole. Adding another object would mean reusing one of the holes. Although the pigeonhole principle may seem like a trivial observation, it can be used in proofs such as the following: There are at least 2 people in Madrid with the same number of hairs on their heads. Proof: A human head has around 750,000 hairs. We assign a pigeonhole for each number from 0 to 1,000,000 and assign a pigeon to each person who will go to the loft corresponding to the number of hairs on his head. As in Madrid there are more than a million people, there will be at least two people with the same number of hairs on their heads. This principle for example can be used to prove that any lossless compression algorithm that makes at least one input file smaller will make at least one other input file larger. Otherwise, two different files could be compressed to the same smaller file.
- Change direction, location, or perspective.
- Define what it is not.
- Assume that the problem has been solved (or the work created) and imagine the details.
- Start at the end (assume the problem has already been solved and move towards the beginning).
- Imagine that the conditions or states of the problem are different.
- Think of the problem in reverse. Change a positive statement for a negative one, and vice versa.
- Think about what should be done to produce the opposite of the intended result.
- Reframe the problem. It does not refer to replacing the problem with a different one (although we can also consider it), but to defining the same problem but in different words, or in another way (not necessarily with words).
- Assume that the proposition is false (reduction to the absurd).
- Focus on what others do not see (what is not obvious).
- Follow a method (an organization, a system, a structure).
- If we have a recipe and we are sure it fits the problem, let’s apply it (algorithm).
- If there is a difficult part, start with the difficult.
- If there is an easy part, start with the easy. We can combine both, alternating between them.
- Create a problem tree.
- Create a solution tree.
- Create a forest of problems and solutions.
- Identify symptoms, causes, problems and solutions.
- Analyze (all / many of) the alternatives. Pareto principle (80% of the objective is achieved with 20% of the effort: do it well)
- Analyze the parties involved (people) and their interests.
- Establish the logical framework, which includes the underlying assumptions, under which solutions that are plausible can be identified (and implausible ones can be discarded).
- Work at high speed or in some other way that allows for “mistakes.” Accept mistakes and try to turn those mistakes into unexpectedly valuable outcomes (musical improvisation).
- Rest. Think about something else. Sometimes we need to stop and return to the problem later, and everything is clearer.
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