Ahh I see. So I think a confusion here is that I often think that framing the problem in the abstract often happens BEFORE a specific solution is reached.
One model I really like for this is the TRIZ Prism for problem solving. The idea is you start with a *specific problem* which you then frame as an *abstract problem*, which then allows you to brainstorm an *abstract solution* which then frames a specific solution. So, we might start with a specific thing like “Authors aren’t getting enough for their books” and then BEFORE I come up with a solution, I might say “one way to frame this is Marx’s idea of needing to own the means of production”.
Now, this doesn’t suggest a specific solution, and if you ask me for “specifically, what solution are you suggesting?” my response is “Well I don’t know yet, I just want to explore this frame and see what comes out of it, and what abstract solutions we can arrive at at this level of abstraction.” It would be important, AFTER a few abstract solutions are explored, to go back to specifics and ask how that would look in this specific situation. However, the skill of NOT going specific too soon is important here. Hopefully that gives you a specific example of why I don’t want to provide a specific example in this specific example :)
Another related idea around abstraction vs. specificity is the idea of always having to “define your terms up front.” I remember a particular conversation I was in with rationalists where someone asked what people considered “thinking vs. feeling”. The whole idea here was to explore the different ways people held concepts in order to understand each other better. However, one of the rationalists kept insisting that we first define what we meant by thinking and feeling, so that we didn’t end up with language disagreements. However, the whole point was to explore those disagreements in order to understand people’s experience. This is different from the example above, but its’ another great example of where a specificity move (define your terms) is actually getting in the way of a generative conversation.
Ahh I see. So I think a confusion here is that I often think that framing the problem in the abstract often happens BEFORE a specific solution is reached.
One model I really like for this is the TRIZ Prism for problem solving. The idea is you start with a *specific problem* which you then frame as an *abstract problem*, which then allows you to brainstorm an *abstract solution* which then frames a specific solution. So, we might start with a specific thing like “Authors aren’t getting enough for their books” and then BEFORE I come up with a solution, I might say “one way to frame this is Marx’s idea of needing to own the means of production”.
Now, this doesn’t suggest a specific solution, and if you ask me for “specifically, what solution are you suggesting?” my response is “Well I don’t know yet, I just want to explore this frame and see what comes out of it, and what abstract solutions we can arrive at at this level of abstraction.” It would be important, AFTER a few abstract solutions are explored, to go back to specifics and ask how that would look in this specific situation. However, the skill of NOT going specific too soon is important here. Hopefully that gives you a specific example of why I don’t want to provide a specific example in this specific example :)
Another related idea around abstraction vs. specificity is the idea of always having to “define your terms up front.” I remember a particular conversation I was in with rationalists where someone asked what people considered “thinking vs. feeling”. The whole idea here was to explore the different ways people held concepts in order to understand each other better. However, one of the rationalists kept insisting that we first define what we meant by thinking and feeling, so that we didn’t end up with language disagreements. However, the whole point was to explore those disagreements in order to understand people’s experience. This is different from the example above, but its’ another great example of where a specificity move (define your terms) is actually getting in the way of a generative conversation.