problem-solving

by mrgoonie

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SKILL.md About

---
name: problem-solving
description: Creative problem-solving techniques for breaking through stuck points - includes collision-zone thinking, inversion, pattern recognition, and simplification
when_to_use: when stuck on a problem, need innovation beyond conventional approaches, or want to find elegant solutions
version: 1.0.0
---

# Problem-Solving Skills

A collection of techniques for breaking through stuck points and finding elegant solutions.

## Available Sub-Skills

### When Stuck (Dispatch)
**Location:** `when-stuck/SKILL.md`

Start here when stuck. Matches your stuck-type to the right technique. Quick dispatch table for routing to the appropriate sub-skill.

### Collision-Zone Thinking
**Location:** `collision-zone-thinking/SKILL.md`

Force unrelated concepts together to discover emergent properties. "What if we treated X like Y?" Revolutionary insights come from deliberate metaphor-mixing.

### Inversion Exercise
**Location:** `inversion-exercise/SKILL.md`

Flip every assumption and see what still works. "What if the opposite were true?" Exposes hidden constraints and alternative approaches.

### Meta-Pattern Recognition
**Location:** `meta-pattern-recognition/SKILL.md`

Spot patterns appearing in 3+ domains to find universal principles. Extract abstract forms that apply across domains.

### Scale Game
**Location:** `scale-game/SKILL.md`

Test at extremes (1000x bigger/smaller) to expose fundamental truths. What breaks? What survives? Extremes reveal what normal scales hide.

### Simplification Cascades
**Location:** `simplification-cascades/SKILL.md`

Find one insight that eliminates multiple components. "If this is true, we don't need X, Y, or Z." Look for unifying principles.

## When to Use

| How You're Stuck | Use This |
|------------------|----------|
| **Don't know which technique** | when-stuck |
| **Need breakthrough innovation** | collision-zone-thinking |
| **Forced by assumptions** | inversion-exercise |
| **Same issue in different places** | meta-pattern-recognition |
| **Unsure about production scale** | scale-game |
| **Complexity spiraling** | simplification-cascades |

## Quick Reference

```
Conventional solutions inadequate?  → collision-zone-thinking
"This must be done this way"?       → inversion-exercise
Same pattern 3+ places?             → meta-pattern-recognition
Will it work at scale?              → scale-game
Same thing implemented 5+ ways?     → simplification-cascades
```

## Core Philosophy

> "One powerful abstraction > ten clever hacks"

These techniques help you find the elegant solution that makes complexity unnecessary, rather than managing complexity through brute force.