Genrikh Altshuller grew up in the remarkable city of Baku, Azerbaijan, in the former USSR. Baku was a cultural ecotone where European, Islamic and Asian cultures met. It is probably significant that TRIZ, which encompasses both Eastern and Western thought modalities, originated within such a diverse east-west climate. At age fourteen, Altshuller was awarded his first Soviet patent for an underwater breathing device.
Over one dozen patented inventions - and one engineering degree - later, Altshuller found himself working as a consultant in the Caspian Sea Naval Patent Office. Part of Altshuller's job was to organize the patents and assist inventors in filling out all the pertinent innovation details. He searched for a simple, scientific way of classifying inventions by their degree of inventiveness. After correlating thousands of patents he discovered that there were only five distinct levels of inventiveness, and several of these did not represent actual "inventions" but merely alterations or extensions of already existing ones.
Altshuller's analysis revealed that all technical systems evolve along natural and predictable patters, or lines of evolution. In addition, it soon became evident that all industries utilized the same underlying innovative principles; therefore, these principles could be generalized for universal application and innovation could be learned. It could be taught.
Altshuller, along with dozens of coinvestigators, continued developing and teaching TRIZ throughout his life, eventually applying it to non-technical fields. Even when Stalin rewarded Altshuller with imprisonment in a Siberian labor camp, Altshuller continued his work. He formed a "University for One" where persecuted intellectuals, authors, and college professors taught him their subjects of expertise. He amassed an unprecedented knowledge base while motivating his teachers to survive the camp hardships. After Stalin's death, Altshuller was released. Unable to openly teach TRIZ, he began writing science fiction.
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On 15 October 1926, Genrick Altshuller was born. 15 October 2017 will be his 91st anniverary.
In honor of the "Father of TRIZ," we have posted a biography of Altshuller.
Genrich Altshuller: Father of TRIZ
by Leonid Lerner
The person we are going to discuss is unique. He is unique not just because he developed an amazing science.
He is unique because he never asked for anything in return.
He never said, “Give me.”
He always said, “Take this.”
His name is Genrich Altshuller.
LETTER TO STALIN
In December of 1948, while a Lieutenant of the Caspian Sea Military Navy, Genrich Altshuller wrote a dangerous letter addressed: “Personally to Comrade Stalin.” The author pointed out to his country’s leader that there was chaos and ignorance in the USSR’s approach to innovation and inventing. At the end of the letter he
expressed an even more “outrageous” thought: There exists a theory that can help any engineer invent. This theory could produce invaluable results and revolutionize the technical world. The harsh answer to this letter did not arrive until two years later. Meanwhile, let’s introduce this brash young Lieutenant. Genrich Altshuller was born on October 15, 1926 in Tashkent in the former USSR. He spent many years in Baku, the Capital of Azerbaidzhan. Since 1990 he has resided in Petrozavodsk, Karelia. Altshuller received his first Author’s Certificate [internal Russian patent] for an underwater diving apparatus while a student in the ninth grade. In the tenth grade he built a boat having a rocket engine that used carbide for fuel.
In 1946, he developed his first mature invention, a method for escaping from an immobilized submarine without diving gear. This invention was immediately classified as a military secret — and Altshuller
was offered employment in the patent department of the Caspian Sea Military Navy. The head of that patent department was a man who indulged in fantasies. He asked Altshuller to find a solution to one fantasy: find a military diversion to help a soldier trapped behind enemy lines with no resources. In response, Altshuller invented a new kind of weapon — an extremely noxious chemical substance made from common medical drugs. This invention was a success, and the inventor was brought to meet Mr. Beria, the head of the KGB in Moscow. Four years later, while in one of Beria’s prisons, Altshuller would be charged with disrupting a parade in Red Square with this same invention. Altshuller was a successful young inventor. What triggered his desire to write a letter to Stalin that would destroy his career and change his life forever? “The point is,” Altshuller says, “not only did I have to invent, I had to help those who wanted to invent as well.”
Dozens of people came to his office. “Here is a problem,” they said. “I cannot solve it. What can I do?” In response, Altshuller searched all the scientific libraries but did not find even the most elementary text book on the subject of inventing. Scientists claimed that inventions were the result of accidents, mood, or “blood type.” Altshuller could not accept this — if a methodology for inventing did not exist, one should be developed.
Altshuller shared his ideas with his former schoolmate Rafael Shapiro, an inventor driven to achieve maximum success. By this time, Altshuller had already learned that invention is nothing more than the removal of a technical contradiction with the help of certain principles. Invention is certain if an inventor possesses knowledge of these principles. Shapiro was excited about this discovery and suggested that they should immediately write a letter to Stalin to get his support.
Altshuller and Shapiro prepared themselves. They searched for new methods, studied all the existing patents and took part in inventing competitions. They even received a National Competition Award for inventing a flame and heat resistant suit. Suddenly, they were asked to come to Tbilisi, a town in Georgia. They were arrested as they arrived and, two days later, their interrogation began. They were charged with “inventor’s” sabotage and, as was usual in those days, sentenced to 25 years imprisonment.
This happened in 1950. The reader may think this is the beginning of a story about “a martyr for his ideas.” However, Altshuller views his arrest differently. “Before prison, I struggled with simple human doubts.
If my ideas were so important, why weren’t they recognized? All my doubts were resolved by the MGB [Moscow Committee of State Security].” After his arrest a series of situations occurred where, in order to stay alive,
Altshuller utilized TRIZ (The Theory of Solving Inventive Problems) concepts as his only means of defense.
In a Moscow prison, Altshuller refused to sign a confession and was placed on an “interrogation conveyor.” All night he was questioned. During the day, he was not allowed to sleep. Altshuller understood that he could not survive under these conditions. He stated the problem: How can I sleep and not sleep at the same time? The task seemed unsolvable. The most rest he was permitted was to sit with his eyes open. This meant that, in order to sleep, his eyes must be open and closed at the same time. This was easy. Two pieces of paper were torn from a cigarette package. With a charred match, he drew a pupil on each piece of paper. Altshuller’s roommate spit on the papers and stuck them to Altshuller’s closed eyes. After that he sat across from the door’s peek hole and calmly fell asleep. He was thus able to sleep for several days in a row. His interrogator wondered why Altshuller seemed fresh every night.
Finally, Altshuller was sentenced to Siberia’s Gulag where he worked 12 hours every day logging. Knowing that he could not survive working so hard, he asked himself the question: “Which is better — continue to work, or refuse and be put into solitary confinement?” He choose confinement and was transferred to a section with criminals.
Here survival was much simpler. He befriended the prisoners by telling them many fictional stories he new by heart. Later, Altshuller was transferred to a camp were the older intelligentsia — scientists, lawyers, architects — were slowly dying. To cheer up these desperate people, Altshuller opened his “One Student University.” Each day, for 12 to 14 hours, he attended classes and seminars that the revived professors gave him. This is how Altshuller received his “college education.” In the Varkuta coal mines — another gulag camp — he spent 8 to 10 hours a day developing his TRIZ theory while constantly resolving emergency technical situations in the mines. Nobody believed that this young inventor was working in the mines for the first time. Everybody thought he was tricking them. The chief engineer did not want to hear that TRIZ methods were helping.
One night, Altshuller heard that Stalin had died. A year and a half later, Altshuller was released. Upon his return to Baku he learned that his mother, having lost all hope of ever seeing her son, committed suicide.
In 1956, the first paper written by Altshuller and Shapiro, “Psychology of Inventive Creativity,” was published in the journal Voprosi of Psihologi [Problems of Psychology]. For scientists who study the creative process it was as if a bomb had exploded. Until that time, Soviet and foreign psychologists believed it a fact that inventions were born through accidental enlightenment — the sudden spark of an idea. After analyzing a fund of worldwide patents, Altshuller offered a different method based on the results of human inventive activity. Invention derives from a problem analysis revealing a contradiction.
After studying 200,000 patents, Altshuller concluded that there are about 1,500 technical contradictions that can be resolved relatively easily by applying fundamental principles. “You can wait a hundred years for enlightenment, or you can solve the problem in 15 minutes with these principles,” he said.
What would Altshuller’s opponents say if they knew that the obscure “H. Altov” [Altshuller’s pen name] was making a living writing science fiction stories utilizing TRIZ concepts? Altov wrote his fictions utilizing his inventive ideas. In 1961 Altshuller wrote his first book How to Learn to Invent. In this small book he laughs at the popular opinion that one must be born an inventor. He criticizes the trial and error method used to make discoveries. Fifty thousand readers, each paying only 25 kopecks [25 cents], learned the first 20 inventive methods of TRIZ.
In 1959, trying to get acceptance of his theory, Altshuller wrote a letter to the highest patent organization in the former Soviet Union — VOIR [All Union Society of Inventors and Innovators]. He asked for a chance to prove his theory. Nine years later, after writing hundreds of letters, he finally got his answer. His requested seminar on inventive methodology would be held in Dsintary, Georgia, not later than December of 1968.
It was the first ever seminar on TRIZ. There for the first time he met people who had considered themselves his students. Alexander Selioutski from Petrosavodsk, Voluslav Mitrofanov from Leningrad, Isaak Buchman from Riga, and others. These young engineers — and later many others — would open TRIZ schools in their cities. Hundreds of people that went through Altshuller’s schools asked him to come and conduct seminars in different towns of the Soviet Union. In 1969 Altshuller published a new book: Algorithm of Inventing. In this book he gave his readers and students 40 Principles, and the first algorithm to solve complex inventive problems.
Voluslav Mitrofanov, the founder of Leningrad University of Technical Creativity, told a story about Robert Anglin, a prominent inventor from Leningrad. Once, Anglin — who has over 40 inventions developed through the agony of trial and error creativity — came to a TRIZ seminar. He was very quiet during the TRIZ training session. After everyone had left, he was still sitting at the table, covering his head with his hands. “How much time was wasted!” he was saying. “How much time ... If I only knew TRIZ earlier!”
The Russian TRIZ Association was stablished in 1989 with Altshuller as President.
This is an excerpt from an article written by Leonid Lerner and published in the Russian Magazine Ogonek in 1991.
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While preparing our translation of Genrikh Altshuller's The Innovation Algorithm, we approached Mr. Altshuller with a proposal that he submit a special introduction for inclusion in the book. This would give him the opportunity to personnally address his many new readers in the Western world, and perhaps express to them his hopes - and concerns - for the future development of his brainchild, TRIZ.
Mr. Altshuller enthusiastically agreed. However, because of his ill health, he indicated that we should write the introduction for him. We were both dubious in this regard, until it was proposed that an interview with Mr. Altshuller be conducted, and an introduction composed from his responses. The tone would be humanistic and philosophical, rather than technical, in keeping with the direction of his later work.
So, about mid-summer 1998, we sent Mr. Altshuller three general questions. The plan was to propose broad topics for his consideration and response. Then, subsequent question and answer sessions would flesh-out his ideas.
Unfortunately, the universe had a different plan.
All that exists now is his initial response to our first broad-topic questions. Out of deep respect and affection for Mr. Altshuller, they are submitted here.
Lev Shulyak & Steve Rodman
24 September 1998
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What do you think the long-term effect of TRIZ might be on the wellfare of humanity? |
"Of course, I would like to answer this in an optimistic spirit. However, the history of science and technology does not give us a very consoling forecast. The social well-being, the social relationship between good and evil, has little to do with levels of science and technology - even if this may seem paradoxical." |
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What are some important future applications of TRIZ beyond technical systems? |
"This is a very interesting question. Scientists and inventors hold-on to their illusions for a long time. Sometimes, a new search is only made in areas where conventional science and technology spin their wheels. The same happened awhile back with the Great Break-Through to the Poles. 'What can we gain from reaching the North Pole? It is just an empty place.' It is just an empty place with worthless ice. However, almost all technology - along with a significant amount of scientific research - is connected, in one way or another, to the Great Break-Through to the Poles. Later, many of these 'worthless' discoveries and inventions were used in general technology." |
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If the widespread application of TRIZ should lead to a technological explosion, would this be good or bad? |
"This is neither good nor bad. It is inevitable. If people can create a strong theory that allows for understanding the 'technological explosion,' then they will live in a crazy, but exciting and interesting world. If the 'technological explosion' becomes uncontrollable - mankind will face a sad epoch." |
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The most influential writer in the history of writing, Homer, described Genrikh Altshuller when he wrote these immortal words:
"And what he greatly thought, he nobly dared."
But the world knows nothing of its greatest men. The heights that they reached were not attained by sudden flight. While their companions could only marvel, they toiled upward in the night of the unknowable, striving to make it knowable - for all to benefit. Altshuller was such a man.
John Donne wrote that "Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore, never send to know 'for whom the bell tolls'; It tolls for thee." Even more so does the passing of Genrikh Altshuller touch us all. He dedicated his life to a cause that dramatically raised - and continues to raise - the level of society. He initiated, and carried through, a revolution. He accomplished this task with all the odds against him, at every turn in his career. In this respect, he is the ultimate example of the "creative personality" that he studied and introduced in his writings.
Genrikh Altshuller has completed his role; nevertheless, he will be sorely missed. Sir Walter Scott warmly observes:
"And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill;
But O, for the touch of a vanished hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!"
But what of us who remain? We shall continue to meet, but we shall also miss him. There will be one vacant chair; It would be difficult - no, it is impossible - for anyone to sit in that chair. We shall linger to caress him, when we breathe a grateful prayer.
It is for others who were his closest friends to reminisce about their personal relationships with him. I never knew him personally, but I know him well, by his results - by his creative output - by his dedication to the truth, and to the betterment of the world as a place in which to live.
I dedicate this touching little poem by Hafiz to the memory of Genrikh Altshuller.
"Little sleeper, the spring is here;
Tulip and rose will come again,
Only you in the earth remain,
Sleeping, dear.
Little sleeper, the spring is here;
I, like a cloud of April rain,
Am bending over your grave in vain,
Weeping, dear.
Little flower, the spring is here;
What if my tears were not in vain!
What if they drew you up again,
Little Flower!"
Genrikh Altshuller has been "drawn up again" - forever to flower and decorate the landscape of the present and of the future - in each of us, and in our children. He resides in our minds, in our experiences, in our capabilities, and most importantly, he will continue to reside in our hearts. May he have a safe journey. -- by James Kowalik, Renaissance Leadership Institute
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The following are excerpts from the newsletter News of the TRIZ Movement, an extensive email sent by the TRIZ-Info Publishing Center, Cheliabinck Russia, for the period of July - September 1998.
The letter provides information about new books on TRIZ, available seminars, children's education in TRIZ, and so on. It ends with the address of V. Zuravliova, the wife of the late Genrikh Altshuller, and a letter that he prepared not long before his passing away.
We are including those portions of this letter as may be of interest to The Altshuller Institute:
Dear friends!
I am carrying out the last wish of Genrikh Saulovich. I am sending the information that has already been prepared for a seperate mailing.
V. Zuravliova
International TRIZ Association
Petrosavodsk, September, 1998
Dear Colleagues!
I have received letters requesting Certificates. For many people now, this is vitally necessary. Some TRIZniks cannot run seminars, provide lectures in Colleges, open schools and so on. A document is required stating that they have the legitimate credentials to teach TRIZ. It is time to provide this certification. Here, we need to apply serious consideration.
I am supporting, and granting, the following list of candidates to receive the Diploma of TRIZ Master:
To some candidates from this list I would give the Diploma "TRIZ Master Plus." However, we have only one blank form of Diploma.
This list with, small corrections, was made a year and a half to two years ago. Today, this list can be expanded, and we could consider that, for the first approximation, this work is complete. The list contains candidates without consideration of weather they are members of the International TRIZ Association. All of them did a great job towards developing the Theory for Solving Inventive Problems, TRIZ.
Here is the list of candidates for the Diploma of TRIZ Master:
| Amnuel, Pesah - Baku (now in Israel) Bdulenko, Margarita - Krasnogorsk Beliltzev, Valeri - Voronez Bukhman, Isak - Riga (now in USA) Vikentiev, Igor - Sankt-Petersburg Vertkin, Igor - Baku (now in England) Gasanov, Aleksandr - Moscow Gerasimov, Vladimir - Sankt-Petersburg (now in USA) Gorin, Yri - Penza Gorchakov, Igor - Ribinsk Golovchenko, Georgi - Ekaterinbourgh Gubanov, Sergei - Novosibirsk Gin, Anatoli - Gomel Gafitulin, Marat - Zukovski Zlotin, Boris - Kishinev (now in USA) Zusman, Alla - Kishinev (now in USA) Zlotin, Fira - Sankt-Petersburg (now in Israel) Zinovkina, Miloslava - Moscow Ivanov, Gennadi - Angarsk Ilovaiski, Igor - Novosibirsk Kaloshin, Nikolai - Moscow Kriachko, Valentina - Sankt-Petersburg Kaner, Vadim - Sankt-Petersburg Kislov, Aleksandr - Sankt-Petersburg Kravtzov, Sergei - Semipalatinsk Kolchev, Nikolai - Sosnovi Bor Linkova, Nina - Moscow Litvin, Semeon - Sankt-Petersburg (now in USA) Limarenko, Anatoli - Vladivostok Ladoshkin, Victor - Novosibirsk Liubomirski, Aleksandr - Sankt-Petersburg (now in USA) Magidenko, Vladimir - Komsomolsk na Amur |
Meerovoch, Mark - Odessa Mikhailov, Valeri - Cheboksari Mitrofanov, Voluslav - Sankt-Petersburg Murashkovski, Yli - Nikashin, Aleksandr - Rostov na Donu Narbut, Alexandr - Saporozie Narbut, Natalia - Saporozie Podkatilin, Alaksei - Moscow Pigorov, Georgi - Dnepropetrovsk Pevsner, Lev - Ekaterinbourgh Petrov, Vladimir - Sankt-Petersburg (now in Israel) Rubin, Michail - Petrosavodsk Royzen, Zinovy - Kishinev (now in USA) Salamatov, Yri -Krasnoiarsk Sibiriakov, Vissarion - Novosibirsk Seliutski, Aleksandr - Petrosavodsk Sichev, Valeri - Rostov na Donu Salnikov, Vadim - Samara Sklobovski, Kiril - Obninsk (now in USA) Stupniker, Yri - Dnepropetrovsk (now in Israel) Trigub, Aleksandr - Petrosavodsk Timohov, Victor - Gomel Torgashev, Aleksandr - Novosibirsk Fey, Victor - Baku (now in USA) Fedosov, Yri - Sankt-Petersburg Filkovsk,i Gennadi - Baku (now in USA) Khomenko, Nikolai - Minsk Kholkin, Igor - Moscow Tzourikov, Valeri - Minsk (now in USA) Shusterman, Michail - Norilsk Shulyak, Lev - Moscow (now in USA) Sharapov, Michail - Magnitogorsk Shargina, Larisa - Odessa |
Note: As of October 14, 2006, the MATRIZ Dissertation Board began appointing new TRIZ Masters. For the full list of TRIZ Masters, click here .
Foreign news:
During the last several years, TRIZ material has been translated and published in English, Japanese, Spanish and Korean languages. This indicates a big interest in TRIZ in the western world.
Our TRIZ countrymen are now a leading part of the TRIZ institute formed in the United States. You can find more information on the Internet - www.aitriz.com.
G. Altshuller
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Original live Russian footage of Genrikh Altshuller actually teaching TRIZ to his students. This film contains two different scenes of Genrikh Altshuller teaching TRIZ to students and two others of him discussing TRIZ and Innovation in general. You can buy a DVD of "The Club of Interesting Problems " in our General Store. This film has the original Russian soundtrack with English subtitles. This is a collector's film; a must have item for the individual fascinated with TRIZ.
The following is a clip from "The Club of Interesting Problems." Click the play button or the center of the screen to play the clip.
{flv}altshuller_teaching{/flv}
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