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Its a really cool idea and I think its helpful. However, I've unfortunately realized that I don't really need that kind of creativity in anything I do. I need i

by c3534l 6y ago

Its a really cool idea and I think its helpful. However, I've unfortunately realized that I don't really need that kind of creativity in anything I do. I need insight and understanding, I need to actually do the things I want to do, and I need to research solutions, but very rarely do I actually need to be creative in the sense of coming up with completely new ideas to get past a creative block. It was kind of a sad realization.

crazygringo 6y ago
Yes. Sadly, the kind of help one needs in creative fields is rarely the kind of help one needs in analytic fields. I've done a lot of programming, and also quite a bit of acting. The types of thinking "oblique strategies" suggest can be amazing for figuring out a new different way to act a scene -- an absolute goldmine. But they're of absolutely zero use in programming. Similarly, the kind of logical and analytical thinking that helps in programming... seems to be purely harmful in acting. It actually took me quite a long time to realize how fundamentally different the kind of thinking needed for creative vs. analytical tasks is. At least for me, there is almost zero useful transference. If anything, being good at one interferes with the other, until you learn to keep the skills separate.
wenc 6y ago
In technical spaces, creative work seems to largely consist of combining ideas and seeing if the combination already exists and/or if it's likely to work in real life. In my experience, the few times I've the most creative ideas, I had them in the bathroom -- and usually after I've been turning over ideas (writing and rewriting in Google Docs) for days. (Writing helped with converging -- it's not as useful for diverging. Talking to others usually helps for the latter but it's hit or miss.) Oblique Strategies cards sound like they would be useful for certain artistic domains. When I was taking creative writing and storytelling classes, I had a lot of trouble generating story ideas. I used similar randomizer aids (as writing prompts) to see latent possibilities. There are similar tools for generating startup ideas but I wonder if anyone's ever executed on any of these: https://breue.com/good_startup_ideas https://breue.com/good_startup_ideas
pjmorris 6y ago
Would refactorings [0], e.g. 'Extract Method', 'Replace Primitive with Object', ... , be an appropriate analog for programming? [0] https://refactoring.com/catalog/ https://refactoring.com/catalog/

by c3534l 6y ago

crazygringo 6y ago

Yes. Sadly, the kind of help one needs in creative fields is rarely the kind of help one needs in analytic fields. I've done a lot of programming, and also quite a bit of acting. The types of thinking "oblique strategies" suggest can be amazing for figuring out a new different way to act a scene -- an absolute goldmine. But they're of absolutely zero use in programming. Similarly, the kind of logical and analytical thinking that helps in programming... seems to be purely harmful in acting. It actually took me quite a long time to realize how fundamentally different the kind of thinking needed for creative vs. analytical tasks is. At least for me, there is almost zero useful transference. If anything, being good at one interferes with the other, until you learn to keep the skills separate.

wenc 6y ago

In technical spaces, creative work seems to largely consist of combining ideas and seeing if the combination already exists and/or if it's likely to work in real life. In my experience, the few times I've the most creative ideas, I had them in the bathroom -- and usually after I've been turning over ideas (writing and rewriting in Google Docs) for days. (Writing helped with converging -- it's not as useful for diverging. Talking to others usually helps for the latter but it's hit or miss.) Oblique Strategies cards sound like they would be useful for certain artistic domains. When I was taking creative writing and storytelling classes, I had a lot of trouble generating story ideas. I used similar randomizer aids (as writing prompts) to see latent possibilities. There are similar tools for generating startup ideas but I wonder if anyone's ever executed on any of these: https://breue.com/good_startup_ideas https://breue.com/good_startup_ideas

pjmorris 6y ago

Would refactorings [0], e.g. 'Extract Method', 'Replace Primitive with Object', ... , be an appropriate analog for programming? [0] https://refactoring.com/catalog/ https://refactoring.com/catalog/