Honor thy error as a hidden intention

Deadlines, budgets, style conflicts, all kinds of little and big things, can lay a pretty rigid track for creative thought. We use a direct approach and our well-vetted set of strategies to get it done and move on to the next thing. We are especially apt to take our first idea and go with it out of necessity. Without intending to, we make ham-handed decisions or we get ourselves into a creative cul de sac. With the idea of one solution so clear to us, we are blind to other — maybe better — outcomes.

Apparently, this is a dilemma of even the most creative thinkers. In 1975 — when they found that they were both collecting ideas for dealing with such impasses — Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt developed Oblique Strategies, a deck of cards containing aphorisms related to strategies they used in their work. The idea being that when you found yourself making the most likely turnings at every junction, or if you were just stuck at a decision point, you could pull a card from the deck and apply a fresh principle to the problem. It may not provide a shattering insight, but sometimes a tweak in perspective is all it takes. Nice!

The Wikipedia entry on the deck offers these examples of the aphorisms:

Only one element of each kind

What would your closest friend do?

What to increase? What to reduce?

Are there sections? Consider transitions

Try faking it!

Honour thy error as a hidden intention

There are four or five editions of the deck, and they are practically cult items for collectors, but we who are not rolling in dough can still use the principles online – for free. Today, I downloaded the “svelt” Oblique Strategies Widget for my Mac dashboard. Very neat. (screengrab above) Or, you can just bookmark this nicely designed Oblique Strategies website to turn a card when you need to. Enjoy!