CHAPTER 6

Detecting Barriers

Blocked situations increase stress. . . . Where S represents the starting point, and T represents the target, there are loops of trains of thought all around S within the blocked matrix. Unfortunately, T is located outside the plane of the matrix.

—ARTHUR KOESTLER, The Act of Creation

 

 

INVENTORS ARE OFTEN SURROUNDED by hidden barriers. The inventor may have created a fantastic opportunity or pinpointed a question that urgently must be solved, but this doesn’t mean that he or she knows the right path to a solution or even whether such a path exists. Many of us have had that feeling that we’re running in circles, banging our head against a wall, or hitting up against an obstacle that seems insurmountable.

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