''Creative Whack Pack ''

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0880795433.01._PE_PI_SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg
[ISBN:0880795433] The Creative Whack Pack was developed by RogerVonOech, the author of A WhackOnTheSideOfTheHead.  

It is a deck of cards with little thinking strategies on each. The pack is used  as a creativity tool. You will either love it or hate it.

-- ToddCoram

''As quoted in an Amazon review:''

Some examples of cards:

Card #27 - CHANGE ITS NAME - If a architect looks at an opening between two rooms and thinks "door" that's what she will design. But if she thinks "passageway", she may design something much different like a "hallway", "air curtain", "tunnel", or perhaps a "courtyard". Different words bring in different assumptions and lead your thinking in different directions. What else can you call your idea? 

Card #9 - USE A RANDOM IDEA - Open your mind up to things that have nothing to do with the idea you're developing. Pick out the third word on p.134 of your dictionary - "broom". How does it relate to what you are doing? What similiarities does it have with your idea? Can you use it as a metaphor? Look out your window and find the first thing that has blue in it - "mailbox". How does it shed light on your idea? What random idea can you use to stimulate your thinking? 

''I demo'd the dictionary trick to a class of Computer Scientists, many years ago.  The random word was something like aardvark.  And a student cried out: I've just seen why my program is not working!''
  
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A very similar concept to Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's ObliqueStrategies used for creative composition (most usually music).

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CategoryCreativity