Saturday, February 25, 2006

Defining/texturing listing activities

At various stages of creativity, when I am making a list of any kind I can opt to define/texture the listing activity by using adjectives (and words/phrases that function as adjectives).

So, for example, if I am listing information about a subject (say, the Olympics) I can state my directive as:

List information about the Olympics

and then define/texture the listing by using adjectives and words/phrases that function as adjectives:

List arrival information about the Olympics
List likely to amaze information about the Olympics.

(The first could suggest: the opening ceremony, flights into the country, order of arrival of events etc. The second could suggest: the records, the outstanding athletes, the distance traveled by the torch etc.)

Various stages of creative thinking

Listing information

The defining/texturing approach can be used when listing information about a subject. The defining/texturing templates for this would read as:

List X information
List X facts
List X problems
List X ideas
List X rules (with a view to breaking them)

Creating ideas

At the creative stage the defining/texturing templates would read thus:

Create X idea
Create X 'What if?' (See 'What if?' post)

Movement and using 'What if?' questions

If am using lateral thinking provocations or 'What if?' questions for thought experiments, I can use the defining/texturing approach to help list consequences, benefits, and the circumstances when the thought experiment would be beneficial. Thus the templates for this read:

List X consequences
List X benefits
List X circumstances when idea is beneficial

Listing Assumptions

I can use the defining/texturing approach to help list assumptions about a subject. So, if I my subject is the Olympics and I use the defining/texturing template "List X assumptions about the Olympics" a possible final directive could read thus:

List Simon assumptions about the Olympics

and a possible assumption listed could be: I assume that people called Simon are allowed at the Olympics.

Taking concepts from the defining/texturing directive

I can opt to lift (or create) a concept directly from the defining/texturing template. So if a directive was:

List scientific information about the Olympics

I can forget about naming a specific example of scientific information and just use 'scientific information' as a concept in itself. I can create a word from this if I like such as "sci-info".

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