Mind · Strategy
GeneralProblemSolvingProtocol
Approach any problem through six dimensions: scope, evidence, constraints, stakeholders, mechanism and dynamics
Definition
Mechanism
A protocol for problems that no specialized protocol fits, obtained by applying the four-test decomposition (ConceptualDecomposition) to problem-solving itself. It proposes six dimensions: scope (what is the problem: its boundary, its ambiguities and its addressable sub-problems), evidence (what is known: data, source evaluation, uncertainty), constraints (what limits a solution: resources, physical laws, regulation, ethical boundaries), stakeholders (who is involved: affected parties, competing interests, power, consent), mechanism (how a solution works: causal structure, design, components) and dynamics (how things change over time: feedback, adaptation, degradation, unintended consequences). Each dimension is addressed for the problem at hand. It is what a RootSolver uses when no specialized protocol fits; the specialized protocols refine it, as an evaluation protocol deepens scope, a making protocol deepens mechanism, and an ethical protocol deepens where stakeholders meet constraints. The six are a proposal to test, not an established result.
Invariants
- Each of the six dimensions is addressed for the problem at hand.
- The protocol applies where no specialized protocol fits; where one fits, the problem goes to it.
Risks
Failure modes
Dimension skipped
a problem is solved without its scope, constraints or stakeholders being stated, and the solution fails on what was left out.
Checklist reading
the six are filled in as headings without shaping the solution.
General where specific fits
the general protocol is used although a specialized protocol fits the problem and would go deeper.
Relationships
Builds on
References
Finding what a concept is made of: locate it, carve it into the dimensions every case it claims needs, test each, search for what is missing, route real cases through it, say how the parts make the whole, and carve again below
Apex triage node of a SolverTree, with Pathway Memory as its compounding learning site
Nothing in this library builds on this pattern yet.