19-02-03 How to make ideas or concepts generative

Category: Idea Lists (Upon Request)

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1. Create questions, rather than pure concepts.

1. Rather than decompose, ask ‘what are its sub-parts’, or ‘what are all of its instantiations’?
2. Rather than abstract and generalize, ask ‘what is the most general version of this?’ or ‘what is this a single example of?’
3. Invert - ask the opposite of the question, if your target is a question
   1. Ex., instead of ‘what do you believe that few others believe’, ask ‘what to you disbelieve that many others believe’
   2. There are a few versions of inversion
      1. Opposite in meaning of the entire question
      2. Switch the meaning of the verb,
         1. From x to not x
         2. From x to -x
4. If it’s descriptive, ask ‘what would I do if I was x’
   1. Ex., what would I do if I was decisive?
   2. Ex., what would I do if I was perfectly rational and had complete control?
   3. Ex., what would I do if I was a genius / hero / superhero / supervillain?
5. How do I create x? (As a default response to any noun)
   1. How do I create the optimal x?
      1. How do I create the optimal friendship?
      2. The optimal experience?
   2. How do I create the transcendent x?
6. Take an example of a process that was generative due to or by the concept in question. Walk step by step through that process, and in elucidating the steps create a set of leading questions that make it more generally generative.
   1. Ex., noticing a technique that works (say, deadlines), asking why it works, and using that why to generate new techniques as a sequence of leading quesitons that make generalization generative in a specific way that is extremely tractable.
      1. Note, to create specific versions of generalization or abstraction (really, every technique) that sacrifice generality for ease of generation

Source: Original Google Doc