d799284b15
The optional-skills copy was still the v1.0.0 constraint-dispatch skill (SKILL.md + full-prompt-library.md only). This brings it up to the current tool: a situation-routed library of 22 named ideation methods drawn from working artists, scientists, designers, and writers. SKILL.md becomes a 4-step router (extract PHASE/DOMAIN/SPECIFICITY signals → apply overrides → route phase-then-domain → resolve ambiguity), with anti-slop operating rules and an anti-default check. Adds: - 22 method files under references/methods/ — oblique-strategies (Eno/Schmidt), oulipo, scamper, lateral-provocations (de Bono), triz (Altshuller), leverage-points (Meadows), pattern-languages (Alexander), compression-progress (Schmidhuber), analogy-and-blending, pataphysics, first-principles, polya, biomimicry, volume-generation, creative-discipline, premortem-and-inversion, defamiliarization, derive-and-mapping, affinity-diagrams, jobs-to-be-done, story-skeletons, chance-and-remix. Each: when/when-not, the actual cards/principles/operators, a procedure, a worked example, anti-slop notes. - references/method-catalog.md (index + when-to-use), heuristics.md (extended decision tree), anti-slop.md (rules applied to every output), exercises.md (time-boxed exercises). - full-prompt-library.md restructured into domain-affinity sections (general / software / physical / social / lists) so the no-direction default isn't developer-biased. Frontmatter: name aligned to directory slug (creative-ideation, folding in the fix from #18084); version 2.0.0→2.1.0; platforms field preserved. Original wttdotm-derived constraint dispatch is kept as the default path. Supersedes #19295 (which targeted the pre-move skills/ path). Co-authored-by: SHL0MS <SHL0MS@users.noreply.github.com>
5.9 KiB
Time-Boxed Exercises
Concrete exercises grouped by duration. Use when the user wants to do an exercise, not be given ideas. Each entry: parent method, output expected.
5 minutes
Single Oblique Strategy (methods/oblique-strategies.md) — pick a card at random, apply literally to the next decision, make the move. Output: one move.
Random word provocation (methods/lateral-provocations.md) — pick a random noun; force five connections to your problem; use the strongest. Output: one new angle.
Inversion check (methods/premortem-and-inversion.md) — restate goal as opposite, list five things that would guarantee the inverted goal, check if you're doing any. Output: failure-paths self-check.
S+7 on a paragraph (methods/oulipo.md) — replace every noun with the 7th noun after it in a dictionary. Output: defamiliarized version of your text.
30 minutes
Constraint dispatch (full-prompt-library.md) — pick a constraint; 5 min per idea; generate 3; discard the obvious; generate a 4th; output the 3 strongest. Output: 3 candidate projects.
SCAMPER on a base idea (methods/scamper.md) — write base in one sentence; run all 7 operators; surface the surprising one; elaborate. Output: 7 raw, 1 elaborated.
Premortem (methods/premortem-and-inversion.md) — imagine the project failed catastrophically; 10 min writing the failure narrative; 10 min identifying addressable causes; 10 min mitigation plan. Output: failure story + mitigation plan.
Crazy 8s (methods/volume-generation.md) — fold sheet to 8 panels; 8 min total; 1 idea per panel; sketch don't write; pick 2 strongest. Output: 8 raw, 2 chosen.
Defamiliarization on a paragraph (methods/defamiliarization.md) — pick something extremely familiar in your subject; describe it for 200 words as if seeing it for the first time, no technical vocabulary. Output: defamiliarized description + list of newly-visible features.
1 hour
TRIZ contradiction analysis (methods/triz-principles.md) — state problem as contradiction (improving X degrades Y); look up 2–3 candidate principles; for each, generate one mechanism in your specific case; pick the strongest. Output: contradiction statement + 1 elaborated mechanism.
James Webb Young, compressed (methods/volume-generation.md) — gather specific material (15min) → digest, make connections (15min) → walk away (10min) → idea arrives (variable) → shape (20min). Output: a written idea that has been incubated.
Affinity diagram (methods/affinity-diagrams.md) — write each note/quote on its own card; spread them out; cluster silently; name each cluster; note orphans and gaps. Output: bottom-up taxonomy + list of gaps.
Sol LeWitt instruction (methods/creative-discipline.md) — define the work as an instruction not an object; write it as a single sentence; the work is the instruction. Optionally execute it once. Output: an instruction-as-work.
1 day
Tharp's box (methods/creative-discipline.md) — get a literal box; spend the day collecting everything related to your project (clippings, references, sketches, sources, objects); label it; keep adding for the project's duration. Output: physical archive + practice of returning.
Single-day dérive (methods/derive-and-mapping.md) — pick a territory you don't know well; spend the day wandering, no agenda; follow attractions; at end, draw a Lynch-style map (paths, edges, districts, nodes, landmarks); note surprises. Output: map + surprises + possibly a project.
Hard-constraint writing day (methods/oulipo.md) — pick one constraint (lipogram, univocalism, snowball, prisoner's, pilish); write 1000 words under it; resist abandoning when it gets hard. Output: 1000 constrained words.
High concept low effort (full-prompt-library.md) — pick a brilliant idea; execute lazily; ship by end of day. Output: a finished thing that exists.
1 week
Compression-progress research week (methods/compression-progress.md) — Day 1–2: identify a domain you have weak predictions in. Day 3–5: read deeply. Day 6: write the new patterns you can predict. Day 7: pick the question whose answer would most compress your model further. Output: a research question grounded in your current model.
Pattern-language week (methods/pattern-languages.md) — Day 1–2: identify ten recurring problems. Day 3–4: write each as a pattern (context, problem, generative solution). Day 5: arrange in partial order. Day 6: design using the patterns as vocabulary. Day 7: review. Output: a small pattern language and a design that uses it.
Cleese open-mode week (methods/creative-discipline.md) — each day: protect 90 minutes during which you do nothing useful, don't check messages, don't finish anything. The work is to not be in closed mode. Output: not an idea — the conditions for ideas.
Multi-week
Cameron's Artist's Way (12 weeks) (methods/creative-discipline.md) — daily morning pages (3 longhand pages, stream of consciousness, don't reread for 8 weeks). Weekly artist date (2 hours solo, doing something that interests you). Output: a different relationship to the work.
Lynda Barry image-bath (methods/creative-discipline.md) — daily for several weeks: list 10 things you saw today; pick one; draw it (badly is fine); write a paragraph from inside the memory it surfaces. Output: an archive of recovered specifics.
When the user wants an exercise but doesn't say which
| Situation | Default exercise |
|---|---|
| "Want to make something but unsure what" | 30 min: constraint dispatch + 3 ideas |
| "Stuck" | 5 min: single Oblique Strategy |
| "Have ideas, can't pick" | 30 min: premortem on each |
| "Need to know more about X" | 1 hour: James Webb Young compressed, OR 1 day: dérive |
| "Want a long-term practice" | multi-week: morning pages, image-bath, Tharp's box |
Don't stack exercises on first invocation. Pick one, run it, see what comes back.