Уважаемая Наталья, дорогие друзья!
Мне повезло в жизни в течение долгих лет быть студентом Г.С.Альтшуллера. Я рассказал об этом в своих мемуарах. Сокращенный вариант их, но только на английском языке, размещаю на форуме, как ответы на Ваши, Наталья, вопросы.
MY EXPERIENCES WITH MY TEACHER GENRIKH SAULOVICH ALTSHULLER
Throughout my life, I have never stopped thinking that I am very lucky to know TRIZ (the Russian acronym for Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) and to have learned it directly and happily by chance from the teacher: Genrikh Saulovich Altshuller, the father of TRIZ. I am sure that if I had not discovered TRIZ in 1971, I would certainly have known it later and would have followed it for the rest of my life.
In 1967, I was sent to the Soviet Union (now CIS) to study experimental solid state physics. After a pre-university year learning Russian, I went into the State University of Azerbaijan in Baku city.
I think it is inevitable that my habit of reading about creative thinking, sooner or later, would have lead me to TRIZ. And in this inevitability there happened a lucky event.
One day, in 1971, when I was a senior, my lecturer of “solid state theory” was late, so I chatted to some Soviet students beside me. Fifteen minutes passed but the lecturer had not arrived yet. I asked them my questions associated with creative thinking. Andrei told me that the All-Union Association of Soviet Inventors and Rationalizers had just founded the Public Institute of Inventive Creativity which taught the creative thinking methods. He, himself, had been studying here and was finding it interesting. Like a thirsty man who sees the water, I asked Andrei to guide me to enter the Institute after class.
In general, I worried that I would not be permitted to enter the Institute. The teacher Mr. Altshuller listened attentively to me, did not interrupt, and then briefly gave his agreement which dispersed my prepared arguments in the case of his having questions. He said: “If you love creative thinking, you can enter the class. I think whatever you study in this Institute will be useful to you and your heroic country. I will help you if you have any difficulties”. I was as happy as if I were floating on air. And from that moment, I had a new life.
This was the first time I saw the teacher Mr. Genrikh Saulovich Altshuller. I thought that the teacher who taught creativity would be older (in order to have creative experience to share with others), so I was surprised. He looked like a young sportsman. He had a kind-hearted face, intelligent, warm eyes and thick, curly, brownish hair. He was quite handsome according to the traditional model.
Coming to study with me later in my first class (1971 - 1973), were also Mr. Nguyen van Chan, Mr. Nguyen van Thong; and in the second one (1973 - 1975) Mr. Duong Xuan Bao, Mr. Thai Ba Can and Mr. Nguyen Quang Tho, all of whom were also Vietnamese students at that time.
The Public Institute of Inventive Creativity (PIIC or its Russian acronym is AzOIIT) was founded by the teacher Mr. Altshuller\\'s initiative, and he was also the designer of curricula and syllabus. Its objective was to prepare the professional inventors, the researchers and lecturers of the creativity methodologies and the organizers of the creative and inventive activities. This Institute was also a place where the new research results of TRIZ were tested and where the feedback received from the teaching and application by learners was used in order to perfect TRIZ. The program lasted 2 years. The main subjects were:
Creativity Methodologies (TRIZ was the principal course but the methods of other schools in the field, including Western ones were also studied)
1. Development of Creative Imagination
2. Psychology of Creativity
3. Systems Theory
4. Information Theory
5. Cybernetics
6. Decision Making Theory
7. Patentology
8. Forecasting Methods
9. History of the Development of Science and Technology
As I said above, it was an irreplaceable opportunity to learn directly from the teacher Mr. Altshuller. As time went by, the more I knew him, the more I appreciated this opportunity.
First and foremost, it was the chance to learn the work (TRIZ) from the author himself. Therefore, the learners were not afraid of misunderstanding after some misrepresentation of TRIZ\\'s methodology. Nowadays, when exploring the Internet, and watching the activities about TRIZ over the world, I find that the problem of incorrect understanding and teaching of TRIZ is not in very small number. When learning from the author himself, learners could ask about anything involved with the work and they could have reliable answers to their questions, even concerning the experiences with which his work was written. If you learn only from those who have read or learned before you, you will not have this chance.
However, it is unascertainable whether the author is always able to deliver effectively his knowledge to learners. Knowledge is information. There are various factors such as: the accuracy and the form of generating, processing and encoding information from the transmitter, the environment, and the cognitive level of the receiver that can influence the effectiveness of communicating this information. In this aspect, I had another chance too: the teacher Mr. Altshuller was an excellent pedagogue.
As a learner, I found that his language was clear and accurate, neither complicated nor wordy. So listeners could understand exactly what he meant. Always using pictures, and illustrations, he made his lectures well-arranged and highly convincible with valuable details. Let\\'s make a comparison - you are invited to taste a special dish by two people; the first one says “It is very delicious, go ahead!”, the second does not use the words “delicious” or “go ahead” but goes into details so strongly desirous that you serve yourself before his speeches have finished.
Evidently, you are persuaded more easily by the second one, who motivates you to do the act. The teacher Mr. Altshuller applied a flexible approach in giving lectures and answering questions, depending on the kind and/ or the level of listeners. He mastered a rich source of expressions, examples and stories from various domains, so he easily made a good connection with learners. Furthermore, he had a lot of funny, humorous tales and anecdotes related to creativity, which set a relaxed atmosphere in his classroom. Listening to him, I felt that he did not present TRIZ as the theory only but that I had listened to the story of his research and theory building process. Writing on this point, I remember Tolstoy\\'s observation: “It is worth not only knowing that the Earth is round but more importantly knowing how to come to this conclusion”.
I must say the teacher Mr. Altshuller had managed to capture the heads and hearts of the learners. He was not only a teacher but also an artist. He, himself, was a symbol of beauty in conveying the best and the most human quality; that is, the creativity, to the learners. Probably for this reason, he is also well appreciated in the Soviet Union as a science fiction writer.
Through his answers to my questions in the classroom, at break-time, or during my visits to his apartment, especially in the time of writing my thesis, I felt my knowledge became more profound. He not only satisfied my queries but also provoked me to develop my thoughts further in a way that I could not imagine before. Simultaneously, I became more strict with myself because in answering carefully certain questions, he added “My answers all follow from what we have already learned”. His eyes seemed to say “with your ability you can answer your own questions, you should solve these yourself first. Be self-confident, my young man”. Since then, I have usually applied my own knowledge to answer the questions by myself and only asked the teacher or others once I cannot. This effort improved my self-confidence and my independence in learning and researching later.
In writing our theses, the teacher Mr. Altshuller encouraged us to choose our own subjects appropriate to our specific fields. Knowing that my major was physics, he suggested I should choose the theme “Guiding the Usage of Physical Effects in Inventing” while my heartfelt, long-nurtured topic was “The Psychological Inertia in Solving Creative Problems”.
I gave him whatever I had partially finished writing. If he had time, we would discuss it at once, if not, he would read it at home and make an appointment with me. He commented on every part of the thesis and asked me many questions such as: “How have people taken steps to implement this idea? Which document was it published in? Have you really read the original text? Have you found all of the related documents? Is your data convincible? Is there any data more convincible? Is it too early for you to draw this conclusion? Is there any other explanation? Any other kind of approach and consideration? Are you able to create tools or at least offer some advice to help others overcome their psychological inertia? In which directions may this theme be continually developed?”
... As a matter of fact, “I shed the sweat” while working with him and I understood that he was very strict in research work. His training and teaching style gave me important advantages when I worked on my dissertations for doctor\\'s degrees: Doctor of Philosophy and Doctor of Science [1] in physics about the optical processes in semimagnetic semiconductors in 1980s in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg). And especially “The Psychological Inertia”, which then I continued to develop into “The Systems Inertia”, was reported at the European Conference on Creativity and Innovation and published in the Netherlands.
When I gave the teacher Mr. Altshuller my manuscript for his last review before it was typewritten, I wrote on the first page, the Scientific Supervisor: Genrikh Saulovich Altshuller. He saw it and crossed it out. To my surprise he just smiled and said: “You chose and completed the thesis yourself, not me, you have to be responsible for your work”. There were some implications in his speech. Maybe he judged that my thesis was not good enough for him to put his name to and even made him lose his prestige; maybe, he was sincere, and thought that his role was only as an opponent or an adviser, not as a scientific supervisor. Furthermore, he wanted to raise the responsibility of learners who should make their own authority in science research without relying on other\\'s reputations. Here, I suddenly remember a humorous story “Rabbit Defends his Thesis”. It was said that, in his thesis, the rabbit concluded that he could eat fox, wolf even bear. Finally, the thesis was also passed because of a simple reason - his scientific supervisor was a lion.
The point was that, when we Vietnamese students talked to him during the break time or when we visited his apartment, answering his and his wife\\'s (Mrs. Valentina Nhikolaevna Zhuravliova) questions about our life, study, scholarship, and accommodation... they remembered everything and they always took the opportunity to help us. In their words, manner and actions we clearly felt their parental warm concern for us. They used to invite us to come to their apartment to enjoy a family atmosphere, and always asked us to have dinner with them before leaving. Their and other teachers\\' hospitality comforted us a lot for the long time of six years of study there in Baku.
In my mind, I often think I had a very good opportunity to improve myself immensely when I was his student, working and corresponding with him. It is said that one of the most effective ways of learning is imitating, willingly following other\\'s examples. This impulse naturally comes from the learner\\'s need and internal aspiration.
You may question, “What did you manage to learn from him as his student?”. My answer is: “I have just learned a little from the teacher Mr. Altshuller. However, this small amount seems great to me because it changed my life in every way in comparison with the time before”.
[1] There are two doctor\\'s degrees in the Soviet Union. The first one called “Kandidat Nauk” is roughly equivalent to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (D. Ph. or Ph.D.).
The second one called “Doktor Nauk” is the highest degree. It is translated into English as Doctor of Science (D. Sc. or Sc. D.). The degree “Doktor Nauk” is awarded for a dissertation where its author having the first degree has opened a new research direction or solved a highly generalized problem in the given field.
СОГЛАСЕН С ОБРАБОТКОЙ ЛИЧНЫХ ДАННЫХ