Creative Problem Solving with a Deck of Cards

mattmcdonnell 5 years ago |

This reminds me of the I Ching (of Man In The High Castle fame, plus y'know, 3000 years of history) approach to decisions, where you ask a question and then receive a random hexagram with a collection of general wisdom. It stimulates thinking around the subject, surprisingly effectively.

Both that and the card deck have a lack of causal connection that works in favour of creativity.

Brian Eno's Visual Music, which I think shows the problem solving card deck, amongst many other artistic experiments, is also supposed to be good.

richard_todd 5 years ago | |

Any divination strategy with a rich semantic palette will work like this (tarot is my personal favorite), and besides that it’s fun.

There was also a guy that derived a set of problem-solving principles based on a study of patents (TRIZ), where you try to apply innovation principles, such as “does it help if you can you make one thing do the work of two things?” And if you think abstractly enough it’s kind of the same oblique process, just starting from a more empirical basis. I wish more people tried it!

mattmcdonnell 5 years ago | | |

Sounds interesting, it looks practical but perhaps less immediate than the card/hexagram based solution, which might be limiting its uptake (not necessarily fairly). Do you use it regularly?

richard_todd 5 years ago | | |

I don’t use the triz stuff often but sometimes if a design issue is vexing I will look through the 40 principles (and software-engineering variants of them) for inspiration. Mostly I apply cards to everyday issues for fun and for the immediacy you mentioned. It only takes a minute and sometimes I free-associate my way into an interesting idea.

chuckblake 5 years ago | |

I recall reading about some other musicians that used I Ching - I think John Cage was one of them.

novosel 5 years ago | | |

Leonard Cohen was also using it at a time.

(as seen in Ladies and Gentlemen... Mr. Leonard Cohen)

mattmcdonnell 5 years ago | | |

Philip Dick was supposed to have used it to guide his writing and i'd imagine other creatives have also

puddingnomeat 5 years ago |

Previously

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24465207

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14917458

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9017960

One for programmers

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13305156

jph 5 years ago |

I love oblique strategies. For programmers and team leads, there's a similar set called "The Primes" that works wonders with my technical teams, because it has the brainstorming ideas plus effective guidance: https://theprimes.com/book

chuckblake 5 years ago | |

cool, I'll check out "The Primes" book.

jph 5 years ago |

Oblique Strategies: ideas for creative lateral thinking (GitHub repo)

https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/oblique_strategies

genjipress 5 years ago |

I have the app version of the Oblique Strategies deck, but at some point I mean to pick up the real thing.

chuckblake 5 years ago | |

I am in the same boat. I would love to get my hands on one of the original decks one day. That app is very good and is a nice substitution.

admiral33 5 years ago | | |

Also the twitter account [0]

https://twitter.com/obliquebot?lang=en

uberdru 5 years ago | |

Yep, shout out to Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt.

cseleborg 5 years ago |

Is there something similar for business and entrepreneurship?

rolha-capoeira 5 years ago | |

Do you consider your endeavors to be non-creative?

I'm not being difficult—I understand what you're asking for. But perhaps instead of a more-specific deck of cards, a more generalized POV can help.

bluetwo 5 years ago | |

Yes, more on point for creative business application is Roger Von Oech's Whack Pack series of card decks. Get them at Amazon or wherever.

imwillofficial 5 years ago |

I tried the web version and got: “Fill every beat with something” Hmmmm

lazyant 5 years ago |

Reminds me of Dice Man