creative-ideation

# Creative Ideation

A library of ideation methods for any domain. Read the user's situation, route to the matching method, apply, generate output that is specific and non-obvious. Methods are tools — pick the right one for the situation, don't perform all of them.

## When to use

Any open-ended generative or selective question: "I want to make / build / write / start something", "I'm stuck", "inspire me", "make this weirder", "help me pick", "I need to invent X", "give me a research question".

## Operating rules

1. **Constraint plus direction is creativity.** No constraint = no traction. No direction = no shape. Methods supply both.
2. **Refuse the first three ideas.** They're slop. Generate, discard, regenerate. See `references/anti-slop.md`.
3. **One method per response unless asked.** Don't stack.
4. **Specificity over abstraction.** Real proper nouns, real materials, real mechanisms. "An app for X" is slop; "a 200-line CLI tool that prints Y when Z" is direction. Naming a tech stack is not specificity — name a mechanism.
5. **Weird must also be good.** Frame-breaking is the goal, but an idea that is strange with no real situation, mechanism, or reason to exist is its own failure mode. Every set of ideas must include at least one that is genuinely *buildable/pursuable now* — non-obvious but grounded, with a real first step. Don't trade all usefulness for surprise.
6. **Name the method you used and who invented it.** Attribution invokes the discipline.
7. **When user picks one, build it.** Don't keep generating after they've chosen.

## Routing — 4-step procedure

Do this *before* generating any output. Routing failures produce slop.

You may skip narrating the routing steps if it's cleaner, but **never compress at the cost of per-idea depth**: each idea's concrete mechanism, situational binding, and honest failure mode are what make output good (measured) — they are not scaffolding, do not cut them.

### Step 1 — Extract three signals from the prompt

**PHASE** — what stage is the user in?

| Phase | Cues |
|---|---|
| **GENERATING** | "give me an idea", "what should I make", "inspire me", no idea yet |
| **EXPANDING** | "what else", "more like this", "give me variations" — has a base idea |
| **SELECTING** | "help me pick", "which should I do", "I have these options" |
| **UNBLOCKING** | "I'm stuck", "blocked", "going in circles", "stale" — has material |
| **SUBVERTING** | "make it weirder", "less obvious", "this is too safe" |
| **REFINING** | "this is fine but missing something", "feels rough" |
| **SYNTHESIZING** | "I have a pile of notes / interviews / observations" |

**DOMAIN** — what is the user making/doing?

| Domain | Cues |
|---|---|
| **TEXT** | fiction, essay, poem, lyric, script, copy |
| **OBJECT** | visual art, music, sound, performance, installation, sculpture |
| **ARTIFACT** | software, hardware, mechanism, device |
| **SYSTEM** | org, civic, institution, ecology, community |
| **SELF** | life decision, career, personal practice |
| **RESEARCH** | paper, thesis, scholarly question |
| **PRODUCT** | business, market, service |

**SPECIFICITY** — how much constraint is in the prompt?

| Level | Cues |
|---|---|
| **NONE** | "I'm bored", "inspire me" — no domain, no project |
| **DOMAIN** | "I want to write something" — knows the field, no project |
| **PROJECT** | "I'm working on this specific X" |
| **PROBLEM** | "I have this specific friction within X" |

### Step 2 — Apply overrides (highest priority, fire first)

Override rules beat the routing table:

- **Mood signal** — user says "weird", "strange", "surprising", "less obvious", "more interesting" → `references/methods/lateral-provocations.md` or `references/methods/pataphysics.md`, regardless of domain.
- **User names a method** — use it.
- **User asks for a method recommendation** ("which method") → surface 2–3 candidates with one-line each, ask which to apply. Don't silently default.
- **High-slop terrain** — "AI ideas", "startup ideas", "habit tracker", "productivity / wellness / fitness / food / travel app" → force `references/methods/lateral-provocations.md` or `references/methods/pataphysics.md` over the obvious method. Refuse the first **5** ideas, not 3.

### Step 3 — Route by phase first, then domain

**By phase (applies regardless of domain):**

| Phase | Default route |
|---|---|
| GENERATING + SPECIFICITY=NONE | `references/full-prompt-library.md` **General** section (constraint dispatch) |
| GENERATING + DOMAIN known | route by domain (next table) |
| EXPANDING | `references/methods/scamper.md` |
| SELECTING | `references/methods/premortem-and-inversion.md` (or `references/methods/compression-progress.md` for upside) |
| UNBLOCKING | `references/methods/oblique-strategies.md` |
| SUBVERTING | `references/methods/lateral-provocations.md` (fallback `references/methods/pataphysics.md`) |
| REFINING (text) | `references/methods/defamiliarization.md` |
| REFINING (other) | `references/methods/creative-discipline.md` (Tharp's spine) |
| SYNTHESIZING | `references/methods/affinity-diagrams.md` |
| Volume needed fast | `references/methods/volume-generation.md` |

**By domain (when GENERATING with DOMAIN known):**

| Domain | Default route |
|---|---|
| TEXT — formal / poetry | `references/methods/oulipo.md` |
| TEXT — narrative | `references/methods/story-skeletons.md` |
| TEXT — has source material to remix | `references/methods/chance-and-remix.md` |
| OBJECT (music, visual, performance) | `references/methods/oblique-strategies.md` |
| OBJECT — physical maker / wants a starting constraint | `references/full-prompt-library.md` **Physical / object** section |
| ARTIFACT — wants a starting constraint | `references/full-prompt-library.md` **Software / artifact** section |
| ARTIFACT — engineering invention with parameter conflict | `references/methods/triz-principles.md` |
| ARTIFACT — software architecture | `references/methods/pattern-languages.md` |
| ARTIFACT — has natural-system analog | `referen