Abstract

Inventors solve practical problems by coming up with bright ideas, also called operating principles. It is not easy to fly in space; space flight is a practical problem. Inventors solve this problem with the (operating) principle of the rocket. It is not easy to make discoveries; some even think it is impossible; making discoveries is a practical problem, a challenge to inventors. In this paper, by looking at discovery as a problem for the inventor, I come up with an operating principle which solves this problem; a principle, that is to say, which explains how we make discoveries, and why it is possible.