The wiffledust problem

Everyone that has been a maker, inventor, geek, or whatever you choose to call yourself, has encountered the wiffledust problem. You have a great invention. All the components fit together perfectly except you need a sprinkling of wiffledust to do this one little thing. The car-crash foam in the movie, Demoliation Man, is a perfect example.  All the components work fine if you can find a foam that quickly hardens fast enough to protect against injuries in a car crash.

Searching for the elusive magic wiffledust

Define exactly the purpose of the wiffledust

A precise definition means everything. Let’s think about the car-crash foam. It needs to quickly deploy. The inside of the passenger area would need to be full of foam in the number of milliseconds between crash detection and potential passenger impact with the inside of the car. The foam would need to be soft and gentle on initial contact with the passenger. It would need to become firm enough to stop the passenger from striking the dashboard. It would need to be become firm in a linearly. In other words, it could not not be mushy until the passenger is an inch away from the dashboard and then immediately become hard as a brick. The firming of the foam would need to be gradual over the travel time of the passenger from upright to dashboard. As much possible, define these types of issues mathematically.

Keep good notes

Keep a record of where you got the information. Keep are record of the main facts you find. Do not through away your notes from one invention to another. Often you will find that one invention will suggest another one and your prior notes will jump start you on your next invention.

Research STEM terms, laws, and equations that relate to your wiffledust

Keep a separate list of the technical concepts. Try to keep a journal log entry of even the ones that you do fully understand.

Search existing products that might use similar components

Let’s continue to think about the crash-foam. Look at home foam injection insulation systems. Look at injection molding with silicone rubber. These may not be the solution. But, often similar technology will spur additional ideas that might be what you need.

Search for products that have components with the same requirements

The crash-foam serves the purpose of slowing down things in the event of a crash. Seat belts, football helmets, various vehicle crash barriers, and product shipping containers serve the some of the general purpose.

Look for alternatives

Always look for alternatives. That is the most important advice I can give you as an old cranky inventor to a young fresh inventor. In the words of Larry Wall, the creator of the perl programming language, there is more than one way doing it (TIMTOWTDI — Tim Toady). An inventor must never be locked into only one way. The invention process is more often circular and only mostly linear toward the end. Let your thinking wonder around a little.

Ask for help

There will come a time when it makes sense to ask for help. Forty-seven years of personal inventing and ten years of mentoring novice inventors has left me with a few thoughts about asking for help from subject matter experts (SME).

1. Be polite and respectful. You are the one asking for a favor.
2. Write your request even if your contact will be verbal. You will be surprised at the number of times you will discover your answer as your write your request. If possible, give the person your written question by email before you talk with them.
3. Clearly state precisely what you need to know. Forty-two might be the answer but it helps to know the question (the Hitchhiker conundrum). Remember, this is not your problem statement for the invention. You are not asking the person to create your invention. You are asking them to fill the gap between what you know and what you think you need to know.
4. Not all SME help is STEM.  For example, asking an insurance SME the average speed of cars that crashed with injuries is not a STEM question. It is, however, important information when designing our crash foam.
5. Clearly state what you already know. The expert needs to understand where you are in the process to be able to formulate their answer.
6. Listen intently even if it doesn’t seem to apply to your problem. You will be surprised, as I have often been, of the number of times that a seemingly unrelated concept holds the key to the solution.
7. Experts can be wrong. Do not argue but never give up on your approach too early. Generations of expert science teachers told their students that the old wives tale of hot water freezing quicker than cold water was silly. That is until Erasto Mpemba, a Tanzanian high school student, proved the experts wrong in 1963. The observation is now named after him: The Mpemba Effect.