Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Creative Problem Solving with a Deck of Cards

agencydocs.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 21 posts

Re: Creative Problem Solving with a Deck of Cards

#11

Post by novosel »

chuckblake wrote: post #9
mattmcdonnell wrote: post #8

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…

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

Leonard Cohen was also using it at a time.

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

Re: Creative Problem Solving with a Deck of Cards

#12

Post by chuckblake »

jph wrote: post #7

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

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

Re: Creative Problem Solving with a Deck of Cards

#14

Post by mattmcdonnell »

novosel wrote: post #11
chuckblake wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Leonard Cohen was also using it at a time. (as seen in Ladies and Gentlemen... Mr. Leonard Cohen)

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

Re: Creative Problem Solving with a Deck of Cards

#15

Post by mattmcdonnell »

richard_todd wrote: post #10
mattmcdonnell wrote: post #8

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…

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 sam…

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?

Re: Creative Problem Solving with a Deck of Cards

#16

Post by rolha-capoeira »

cseleborg wrote: post #13

Is there something similar for business and entrepreneurship?

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.

Re: Creative Problem Solving with a Deck of Cards

#19

Post by richard_todd »

mattmcdonnell wrote: post #15
richard_todd wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 sam…

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?

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.
Post reply on HN