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--- name: problem-reframing shapes: [problem-reframing] description: > 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. --- # 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](../../agents/genius/wittgenstein.md) | the dispute is about how words are being used — audit the language game; some problems dissolve rather than resolve | | [nagarjuna](../../agents/genius/nagarjuna.md) | both sides of a binary feel wrong — run the tetralemma (true / false / both / neither) | | [aristotle](../../agents/genius/aristotle.md) | "why" questions conflated — separate the four causes; catalog the fallacies in play | | [midgley](../../agents/genius/midgley.md) | a metaphor (machine, war, market, brain) silently shapes the design — audit where it breaks down | | [leguin](../../agents/genius/leguin.md) | a trade-off is being denied — force the genuine cost onto the table; audit the narrative frame of the plan | | [eco](../../agents/genius/eco.md) | the artifact will be interpreted — design for the model reader; bound the open vs closed interpretations | | [bateson](../../agents/genius/bateson.md) | the conflict escalates symmetrically or the instructions double-bind — the pathology is in the interaction, not the parties | | [altshuller](../../agents/genius/altshuller.md) | improving one parameter degrades another — formulate the contradiction and resolve it, don't compromise | | [polya](../../agents/genius/polya.md) | stuck on a problem that resists direct attack — restate, work backward, find the related solved problem, specialize | | [schon](../../agents/genius/schon.md) | the current approach keeps failing mid-action — surface the implicit frame and switch strategy deliberately | ## Invocation 1. Pick the best-fit agent above. If two or more fit, run `tools/genius-invoker.sh route "<problem>"` and take the top ranked match. 2. Load it: `tools/genius-invoker.sh invoke <agent> "<problem>"`, then read `agents/genius/<agent>.md` in full. 3. 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, ...). 4. 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>"`. 5. If no shape above matches, use a standard team agent instead. ## 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.