---
name: ck-problem-solving
description: Apply systematic problem-solving techniques when stuck. Use for complexity spirals, innovation blocks, recurring patterns, assumption constraints, simplification cascades, and scale uncertainty.
---

# Problem-Solving Techniques

Systematic approaches for different types of stuck-ness. Each technique targets a specific problem pattern.

## When to Use

- Complexity spiraling: multiple implementations, growing special cases
- Innovation blocks: conventional solutions inadequate
- Recurring patterns: same issue appearing across domains
- Assumption constraints: forced into "only one way"
- Scale uncertainty: production readiness unclear
- General stuck-ness: unsure which approach to take

## Don't Use When

- Problem is straightforward and well-understood
- Simply need more time or information, not a different approach

## Quick Dispatch

| Stuck Symptom | Technique |
|---------------|-----------|
| Same thing implemented 5+ ways, growing special cases | Simplification Cascades |
| Conventional solutions inadequate, need breakthrough | Collision-Zone Thinking |
| Same issue in different places, reinventing wheels | Meta-Pattern Recognition |
| Solution feels forced, "must be done this way" | Inversion Exercise |
| Will this work at production? Edge cases unclear? | Scale Game |

## Core Techniques

### 1. Simplification Cascades
Find one insight eliminating multiple components. "If this is true, we don't need X, Y, Z."

**Key insight:** Everything is a special case of one general pattern.

**Red flag:** "Just need to add one more case..." (repeating forever)

### 2. Collision-Zone Thinking
Force unrelated concepts together. "What if we treated X like Y?"

**Key insight:** Revolutionary ideas emerge from deliberate metaphor-mixing.

**Red flag:** "I've tried everything in this domain"

### 3. Meta-Pattern Recognition
Spot patterns appearing in 3+ domains to find universal principles.

**Key insight:** Patterns in how patterns emerge reveal reusable abstractions.

**Red flag:** "This problem is unique" (probably not)

### 4. Inversion Exercise
Flip core assumptions. "What if the opposite were true?"

**Key insight:** Valid inversions reveal context-dependence of assumed "rules."

**Red flag:** "There's only one way to do this"

### 5. Scale Game
Test at extremes (1000x bigger/smaller, instant/year-long) to expose fundamental truths.

**Key insight:** What works at one scale fails at another.

**Red flag:** "Should scale fine" (without testing)

## Application Process

1. Identify stuck-type — match symptom to technique above
2. Apply technique systematically
3. Document insights — record what worked and what failed
4. Combine if needed — some problems need multiple techniques

## Powerful Combinations

- **Simplification + Meta-pattern** — find pattern, then simplify all instances
- **Collision + Inversion** — force metaphor, then invert its assumptions
- **Scale + Simplification** — extremes reveal what to eliminate
- **Meta-pattern + Scale** — universal patterns tested at extremes