problem-reframing
Skill8 starsChanged 57 days agoMITView on GitHub
The question itself may be the bug. Use when a debate goes in circles, both options of a binary feel wrong, improving one parameter degrades another, "we're stuck" on a problem that resists direct attack, a metaphor is doing hidden work in the architecture, or a trade-off is being denied rather than made.
2 other projects use a version of this.
Adopted by
Most recently taken up by
- Pthahnix/De-Anthropocentric-Research-Enginetheir own version, first seen Oct 9, 2026
- yogsoth-ai/de-anthropocentric-research-enginetheir own version, first seen Sep 25, 2026
Other versions2 projects use a version of this.
Word for word · 0
None found.
Edited · 0
None found.
Wrote their own version · 2
- yogsoth-ai/de-anthropocentric-research-engine★ 505same name
- Pthahnix/De-Anthropocentric-Research-Engine★ 504same name
How matches are found. Word for word: the exact same text. Edited: shares passages with this file (“99% same” means 99% of its five-word phrases also appear here; 10% or more counts). Their own version: similar meaning, or, weakest, the same name. We can’t tell which project had it first. Projects are counted among the 200 most-starred candidates, and mentions are links to the repository we found, up to 50 per site, so both counts are a floor.
In this repository16 other files it gives its agents.
- AGENTS.mdAGENTS.md
- CLAUDE.mdCLAUDE.md
- boundary-designSkill
- causal-auditSkill
- decision-bias-checkSkill
- estimationSkill
- evidence-synthesisSkill
- experience-and-transmissionSkill
- failure-forensicsSkill
- formal-correctnessSkill
- measurement-disciplineSkill
- narrative-sensemakingSkill
- normative-designSkill
- representation-and-possibilitySkill
- structure-discoverySkill
- systems-leverageSkill
The file
We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent
1 rule. About 0 are common, 0 are distinctive, and 1 is very specific to this project.
≈0
Common · estimate
Many files like this have a rule of this kind.
≈0
Distinctive · estimate
This author's own choices. Worth a look.
1
Very specific
Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.
- Common
- Distinctive
- Very specific
- Very specific: line 46
If no shape above matches, use a built-in agent with the closest GENIUS: pattern from rules/agent-routes.json instead.
≈ “Common” is an estimate: at least 1 in 5 of the 350,495 skill files we read have a rule of the same kind, not the same words. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.
Files
Problem Reframing
Problem shape: effort is being spent on a question that is malformed — a false binary, a contradiction treated as a compromise, a metaphor mistaken for the mechanism, a dispute about words masquerading as a dispute about facts. The move: dissolve, restate, or invert the frame before solving anything.
Relevant geniuses
| Agent | Use when |
| wittgenstein | the dispute is about how words are being used — audit the language game; some problems dissolve rather than resolve |
| nagarjuna | both sides of a binary feel wrong — run the tetralemma (true / false / both / neither) |
| aristotle | "why" questions conflated — separate the four causes; catalog the fallacies in play |
| midgley | a metaphor (machine, war, market, brain) silently shapes the design — audit where it breaks down |
| leguin | a trade-off is being denied — force the genuine cost onto the table; audit the narrative frame of the plan |
| eco | the artifact will be interpreted — design for the model reader; bound the open vs closed interpretations |
| bateson | the conflict escalates symmetrically or the instructions double-bind — the pathology is in the interaction, not the parties |
| altshuller | improving one parameter degrades another — formulate the contradiction and resolve it, don't compromise |
| polya | stuck on a problem that resists direct attack — restate, work backward, find the related solved problem, specialize |
| schon | the current approach keeps failing mid-action — surface the implicit frame and switch strategy deliberately |
Invocation
- Pick the best-fit agent above. If two or more fit, run
tools/genius-invoker.sh route "<problem>"and take the top ranked match. - Load it:
tools/genius-invoker.sh invoke <agent> "<problem>", then readagents/genius/<agent>.mdin full. - Apply the agent's
<workflow>step by step and answer in its<output-format>. The deliverable is the reframed question plus what the new frame makes visible — then route the reframed problem to the right skill (estimation, causal-audit, formal-correctness, ...). - Typical chain: wittgenstein dissolves the verbal dispute → altshuller
formulates the residual contradiction → polya attacks it. Run via
tools/genius-invoker.sh compose wittgenstein altshuller -- "<problem>". - If no shape above matches, use a built-in agent with the closest
GENIUS:pattern fromrules/agent-routes.jsoninstead.
Refuse when
- The frame is fine and the problem is just hard — reframing as procrastination.
- The requester wants the reframe to make a real trade-off disappear.
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