7. Frequently asked questions

The matrix has the same parameters in rows and columns, yet the cell contents are not symmetrical. Is this normal?

The matrix has a practical meaning: on the ordinate (in the rows) is the parameter to be improved, and on the abscissa (in the columns) are the parameters which, as a result of this improvement, have deteriorated. A problem in one direction may therefore not have quite the same statistical population of inventive principles, because the patents that fed this statistic are not the same!

The matrix has not evolved since 1969. Do you think it should be reviewed with a more up-to-date patent population?

It's worth remembering that what Altshuller was looking for with his work on patents were the inventor's cognitive mechanisms, not the technological statistics of the knowledge that enabled objects to develop....