Dear Don,
If I may add a footnote to your post, the problem is not simply that we don't have enough problem solving methods. There are not only 501 research methods and problem solving methods, but tens of thousands. As you note, the problem is defining problems in such a way that people are prepared to develop and invest in solutions. And that's for the problems we might conceivably solve.
Some years ago, the Union if International Associations developed a reference work on world problems that they generously placed online at:
http://www.uia.be/encyclopedia
To quote the introductory page, "The Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential is the result of an ambitious effort, since 1972, to collect and present information on the problems humanity is confronted with, as well as the challenges such problems pose to concept formation, values and development strategies. It is a response to the fact that many institutions are trapped in inadequate policy metaphors.
"The Encyclopedia places emphasis on the potential of new metaphors for governance as a major unexplored resource to enable paradigm shifts, and offers radically different perspectives to policy-makers, social researchers and those concerned with development strategy. By focusing on both problems and strategies, as well as constructive and destructive values, it endeavours to transcend the usual polarization of issues and responses to them. The Encyclopedia thus encourages the discovery of a new conceptual dynamic for understanding and action, sufficiently complex to encompass the factions, conflicts and paradigms by which people are separated - both from each other and from a promising future."
What makes this book so interesting is that it locates problems in the recursive cycles and feedback loops in which they are embedded.
None of which brings us any closer to solutions.
Warm wishes from a hotel in Shanghai where I've been attending Radical Design Week at the Tongji University College of Design and Innovation. Tomorrow, it's a day with Ezio Manzini to discuss DESIS and to consider some of the philosophical perspectives that might enable or prevent us from doing what we ought to do to solve problems.
Best regards,
Ken Friedman
--
Don Norman wrote:
--snip--
Yes we have 501 methods to solve problems.
--snip--
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