They are very interesting. I looked at these a long time ago when starting a business. OTOH, they are pretty expensive for 100 oblique cards. :)
I always forget how old they are.
I saw them described as something like 'delightful bunk' somewhere.
There's nothing scientific about them, probably some random phrases on cards would be just as 'inspirational', but nonetheless there's something about them.
I do own an original set, pack, whatever they're called.
Well you can read how they were created (unscientifically), and AFAIK there is no evidence that they are beneficial or detrimental to creativity, so if they do work, nobody has tested it, or it's in a way that's not easy to measure.
Is 'scientific' a requirement? IMHO not at all, in fact it's part of the charm, but if you are looking for a system that is 'proven to work', then obviously this fails.
There was some old fraternal organization that used to spin a set of wheels labelled with words like 'perfect', 'inspirational', 'glory'. Then they would open the meeting by discussing how it described God - "God's glory is perfect" etc. If it didn't make sense, they just spun again.
Mechanically it's the same as divination. It just has all the superstition and pretenses of the supernatural stripped away. E.g. I don't think there's anything magical about the I Ching, but it can be a useful way to consider a situation from an angle you wouldn't normally choose.
There's also a principle which I cannot remember the name of, where in some situations when confronted with a set of options that are of similar value, if you're forced to make a choice yourself you end up less satisfied than if a random choice was made for you. There was a segment on this in a RadioLab episode a decade ago or so. It makes a bit of sense - you can easily regret a decision you personally make to various degrees, but with something left to chance there's little to regret or stew over.
I was actually thinking that these are a lot like the way I use Tarot cards. They give you a set framework to interpret a situation through.
Say I'm unhappy with my work life and I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere with the plans I have set out. I'm starting to think that I need to just stop fighting reality and switch to a career I'm very qualified for with guaranteed employment and excellent pay. Unfortunately that career is one that I'm very sure I won't enjoy. It will be a great source of income, but also a lot of stress.
I pull a card that is associated with the long slog that it takes to achieve your goals. It's basically just an encouraging little passage that says that the path is hard, but hard work is how you get where you want to be.
Looking at it rationally, it's so generic that you could make it apply to basically any situation. Shoot, I could even interpret it in a way that the hard work of the surefire job that I know I won't be happy at will eventually lead me to where I want to be.
Instead, I use my knowledge of myself and my current situation and take it as a reminder that what I'm doing will eventually pay off. It helps me view the crappy spot that I'm in as an integral part of getting to where I need to be.
It's a tool and a framework. It gives you another lens to view the situation through, which I've found to be incredibly helpful.
These cards just seem like a simpler version of that.
Do you think tarot cards might counterintuitively provide the benefit (either by chance or maybe even by design) of overriding the minds tendency to form beliefs (premature conclusions, aka reality) based on heuristics and "facts"? In a sense, using one form of "mysticism" to cancel out another?
I think that's more or less what I mean. Not my normal vocab, but I think we're saying the same thing or something similar at least. It helps you take a second and reassess assumptions that you otherwise wouldn't have thought to question.
There's so many different iterations and styles of Tarot developed by so many people over the last century, couple centuries, or millenia depending on what history you assign to them. It's hard to tell what the intentions were of the groups that originally popularized them. Rider-Waite was obviously the start of what I'd consider our modern Tarot ideas, but everything to do with Tarot has been piled over with so much esoterism and mysticism and general shrouding of the actual history that I don't even care to try to separate fact from narrative. They're useful to me and my deck is pretty and that's about as far as I care to go.
That sounds quite a bit different from Oblique Strategies. This strongly suggests you have a misconception about these cards.
They're just little cards with ways to help you consider/approach a problem from another angle. I've never sprung for a set myself as they're a bit pricey and I've got enough physical clutter as it is. But, many find them useful to some degree. Certainly, I think, we would all agree that often we need to consider a problem from a different angle?
What aspect of the Oblique Strategies cards do you consider a "bad idea?"
Sometimes limitations do foster creativity. Drawing a card and following the statement can help put you in a different mindset and try new things. It’s quite effective.
If you don't feel like they're motivational enough, there's a set of these with a slight modification to get you a bit more pumped: https://www.obliquefuckingstrategies.com
I love starting up my terminal with one of this every time. I ended up coding a simple python package for it, and adding a simple `obliquestrategies | lolcat` to my `~/.zshrc`
At the same time, what's the word, dismayed, with the application and evolution of various "ways of working" in my industry.
So from 27+ years of observation, reflection and participation, I've come to believe my work was always "journey" based. Get to base camp, get up to the hill etc... i.e. deliver, deliver and deliver. But when things go wrong, >>> work out a way around <<< the important bit; and what I feel Oblique Strategies might be attempting to resolve.
Its funny. When people leave projects they always reflect on the journey. Strange eh?
As such I attempted to developed a manifesto called "Push".
As in "I push the trolley around the supermarket. I push myself to exercise. I push my kids through school. Why is the creative process any different?" -- yeah, yer, corny I know (c:
"Push Manifesto is about vision, collaboration, inclusive behaviours, determination, communication, governance, learning, and above all prioritizes the journey; using waypoints over iterations and milestones, balancing desire for fit-for-purpose, targeting shared value outcomes for users and stakeholders.
Push Manifesto feeds the Maturity Model, evidence-based mindset, supporting the scientific approach daring to explore the latent space, with a pragmatic world-view."
Set yourself "waypoints" that have value. You can iterate, waterfall, tick-tock from there. However it feels best to get the ticks in the boxes.
Most projects fail, all journeys complete, one way or another.
Famously "creativity has no timeline" and forcing it tends to not satisfy the art form or the artist.
Can you use Push at work? Yes. Does it work with SAFE and Agile? Sure. Isn't it just common sense? Maybe?
- Condense your stand ups to just 2 a week top and bottom.
- Choose afternoon times not mornings. Consolidate multiple projects into these stand ups.
- Use software for card walls.
- Manage your knowledge and keep that with the assets. Do not update the card with "findings". JIRAs/workitems/ToDos/Output what ever you call shovelling dirt mutates assets.
- Kill ceremonies. Sure do reviews one-to-one or group, reflect; but inline and when it matters.
- Talk to each other. Like you're around the campfire of creativity.
20 comments
[ 2.3 ms ] story [ 86.6 ms ] threadhttps://youtube.com/watch?v=FODvjYoVEi8
…and actually have used this method myself to get out of ruts! But as photography prompts instead :)
https://www.enoshop.co.uk/product/oblique-strategies.html
There's nothing scientific about them, probably some random phrases on cards would be just as 'inspirational', but nonetheless there's something about them.
I do own an original set, pack, whatever they're called.
I'm curious...
How did you determine this to be true?
Is being scientific a pre-requiste for something (value maybe)?
Is
Is 'scientific' a requirement? IMHO not at all, in fact it's part of the charm, but if you are looking for a system that is 'proven to work', then obviously this fails.
Seems no bad idea ever dies!
Say I'm unhappy with my work life and I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere with the plans I have set out. I'm starting to think that I need to just stop fighting reality and switch to a career I'm very qualified for with guaranteed employment and excellent pay. Unfortunately that career is one that I'm very sure I won't enjoy. It will be a great source of income, but also a lot of stress.
I pull a card that is associated with the long slog that it takes to achieve your goals. It's basically just an encouraging little passage that says that the path is hard, but hard work is how you get where you want to be.
Looking at it rationally, it's so generic that you could make it apply to basically any situation. Shoot, I could even interpret it in a way that the hard work of the surefire job that I know I won't be happy at will eventually lead me to where I want to be.
Instead, I use my knowledge of myself and my current situation and take it as a reminder that what I'm doing will eventually pay off. It helps me view the crappy spot that I'm in as an integral part of getting to where I need to be.
It's a tool and a framework. It gives you another lens to view the situation through, which I've found to be incredibly helpful.
These cards just seem like a simpler version of that.
There's so many different iterations and styles of Tarot developed by so many people over the last century, couple centuries, or millenia depending on what history you assign to them. It's hard to tell what the intentions were of the groups that originally popularized them. Rider-Waite was obviously the start of what I'd consider our modern Tarot ideas, but everything to do with Tarot has been piled over with so much esoterism and mysticism and general shrouding of the actual history that I don't even care to try to separate fact from narrative. They're useful to me and my deck is pretty and that's about as far as I care to go.
They're just little cards with ways to help you consider/approach a problem from another angle. I've never sprung for a set myself as they're a bit pricey and I've got enough physical clutter as it is. But, many find them useful to some degree. Certainly, I think, we would all agree that often we need to consider a problem from a different angle?
What aspect of the Oblique Strategies cards do you consider a "bad idea?"
https://github.com/FdelMazo/obliquestrategies/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIZ
At the same time, what's the word, dismayed, with the application and evolution of various "ways of working" in my industry.
So from 27+ years of observation, reflection and participation, I've come to believe my work was always "journey" based. Get to base camp, get up to the hill etc... i.e. deliver, deliver and deliver. But when things go wrong, >>> work out a way around <<< the important bit; and what I feel Oblique Strategies might be attempting to resolve.
Its funny. When people leave projects they always reflect on the journey. Strange eh?
As such I attempted to developed a manifesto called "Push".
As in "I push the trolley around the supermarket. I push myself to exercise. I push my kids through school. Why is the creative process any different?" -- yeah, yer, corny I know (c:
"Push Manifesto is about vision, collaboration, inclusive behaviours, determination, communication, governance, learning, and above all prioritizes the journey; using waypoints over iterations and milestones, balancing desire for fit-for-purpose, targeting shared value outcomes for users and stakeholders.
Push Manifesto feeds the Maturity Model, evidence-based mindset, supporting the scientific approach daring to explore the latent space, with a pragmatic world-view."
Set yourself "waypoints" that have value. You can iterate, waterfall, tick-tock from there. However it feels best to get the ticks in the boxes.
Most projects fail, all journeys complete, one way or another.
Famously "creativity has no timeline" and forcing it tends to not satisfy the art form or the artist.
Can you use Push at work? Yes. Does it work with SAFE and Agile? Sure. Isn't it just common sense? Maybe?
- Condense your stand ups to just 2 a week top and bottom.
- Choose afternoon times not mornings. Consolidate multiple projects into these stand ups.
- Use software for card walls.
- Manage your knowledge and keep that with the assets. Do not update the card with "findings". JIRAs/workitems/ToDos/Output what ever you call shovelling dirt mutates assets.
- Kill ceremonies. Sure do reviews one-to-one or group, reflect; but inline and when it matters.
- Talk to each other. Like you're around the campfire of creativity.
Anyway enjoy, links below:
- https://www.pushmanifesto.org/ - https://github.com/wisejnrs/pushmanifesto
Feel free to PR me.
Mike