How does one find a problem worth working on? This is the most serious issue facing graduate students trying to start their research. Among practicing scientists, success in problem finding can make or break a career. In business, one may ask how one can recognize a new business opportunity or trend. Conversely, how can one recognize an organizational dysfunction?

The simple answer is that problems (including opportunities), just like diseases, have symptoms. An inconsistent theory will generate contradictions. An incomplete or inadequate theory will be confronted by anomalous data. Unexploited economic opportunities will generate unusual behaviors, dislocations, and unexpected rapid growth by certain companies. Undiscovered phenomena or processes will generate behaviors that cannot be explained. In all of these cases one observes something that does not fit. In particular, one is looking for something that doesn't fit that is important or that has implications for other issues. This chapter explores these topics.

PARADOX AND CONTRADICTION

In searching for critical aspects of a complex problem, it is useful to develop an eye for paradox and contradiction. By focusing on a point of paradox, contradiction or contention, one can avoid the need to learn everything about a topic. In any domain of knowledge, many things are well known to the experts, but to learn everything that the expert knows about a topic means that one must become an expert as well.