1s Upon A Time - Episode 1+1

Manav Hada is my student from the MBA Innovation and Entrepreneurship program at Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune, India. Manav had good fun in the class as is evident in this series of posts (Second of the series). If you didn’t notice, we had an Alfred Hitchcock/Subash Ghai moment! Manav starred in his own story as Sage Manav. Have fun!

How to design your solution?

Ok! Now you are thinking I have lost it, right? Designing the problem seemed fair, but now design the solution? Yes! Because a beautiful problem needs a beautiful solution. You don’t want the problem to be unhappy right? So let us start designing the solution.

This is a continuation from Episode 1

*Source-* https://img.clipartfest.com/9f4786fe485e2913d13411ceacda2f93_are-you-a-pyromaniac-numbers-clipart-1-10_3628-2095.jpeg

Story so far,

Till now we know, that 1’s king Numero Uno had realized that they can become infinity. He did not know the way, but by using ARIZ, he had been able to define the problem and had set a goal for the kingdom. Here in this episode, we explore how Numero Uno found the solution to become infinity.

In order to find the solution, we need to know its features so that we can create it. From episode 1, we know two features of the solution (called X)

So X has to

1. Get big numbers (like really big ones)
2. Use only 1’s

*Source*- https://i.onthe.io/0fgjhs915enhi03ra.96e15595.jpg

But this does not get us near to the solution. So we need more features. And here comes to our rescue TRIZ. TRIZ enables us to creatively churn out features for our problem statement. It thus resolves our contradictions.

OK, enough talk! Back to work.

Step 1: We use Navrasas or Nine emotions (An ancient Indian Arts classification of emotions), to identify with our audience, in this case the 1’s. So as per our current understanding, we know 1’s are feeling low, that is inferior and by getting the solution they would feel proud and accepted. Now that we know what feelings they are going through, we create an emotional connect. This helps us to recognize the appropriate features during the application of TRIZ.

Step 2: Go to this link - https://triz-journal.com/40-inventive-principles-examples/ and save yourself trouble! If you do not understand, then contact the blog owner or the author for more complicated techniques.

Step 3: Read the link and use the principles that seem appropriate to generate the features.

Like for our problem, I am using:

1. Principle 1 – Segmentation: 1’s do not add in one go together, but segregate and add in groups
2. Principle 17 – Another dimension: Reorient 1 as a power than as number, like 1 1
3. Principle 40 – Composite Materials: Change operations. Use multiplication, exponents in combination

Step 4: Consolidate the features

So now we know X has the following features

a. Gets big numbers
b. Uses only 1’s
c. Segments the numbers during operations
d. Power up’s the number when required
e. Uses different operators

Phew! Looks like we are getting closer to our solution. Back to the story…

Armed with this info, the King Numero Uno approached the sage, for consultation and feedback. Sage Manav, delighted with the king’s progress, said “Good! I see you have used ARIZ & TRIZ well. But you will not be able to reach infinity in your first attempt. You need to get back the 1’s for multiple attempts.”

Yes! X had to be reversible and so the king asked “Equal To” to be part of the process which he gladly agreed to. Now the 1’s could experiment forever. Awesome!

The king called an urgent meeting with his advisors. He asked them to analyze the system for threats and opportunities using the PESTEL (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, Legal) technique. This would ensure necessary processes were looked into before the solution was implemented.

Here is the report from the advisory council:

1. Political – Tie up with the mathematical operators & brackets
2. Economic – Boost to 1’s kingdom
3. Social – Increased morale
4. Technological – Ability to jump to power up the number
5. Environmental – Reversibility, thus no loss
6. Legal – Self designed solution

Numero Uno patted himself on the back and made a public announcement. “Fellow 1’s, your King has good news! We have finally figured a way to become infinity. I invite you all to be a part of this feat and claim our glory!”

On the chosen day, the king, all the 1’s and all the operators assembled at the great hall. With patience and diligence, they tried different combinations. Initially they started with basic permutations like 1+1=2; 2^(1+1)=2^2=4. Too many 1’s were used. So using other features, a different approach was adopted. 1+1=2; 1+1+1=3; 2 3 =8. Better, but improvisation was needed.

They decided to merge the features and the results were amazing. 1+1+1=3; 1+1+1=3; 3^3 =27.

Yes! Now we are talking.

Looking at how 1s were fast approaching infinity, the other numbers pooled in as well and helped out.

And this way, 1’s kingdom rose to infinity by integration without a single differential sign between them.

Finally, there was “Unity” in the number kingdoms. ;)

[End of Episode 2]

Hope that was fun! For any queries please do leave a comment. And stay tuned for more.

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