Brainstorming Tricks

"One of Shannon’s go-to tricks was to restructure and contrast the problem in as many different ways as possible. This could mean exaggerating it, minimizing it, changing the words of how it is stated

1. Attack at various abstraction levels

in the problem workflow context and intervene the one with most leverage or with easiest distribution

Example: AI Copilots (Research/Discovery) via web app (ChatGPT, Elicit) via Extension (Memex) via Browser (Arc) via OS (Windows Copilot) via Hardware (Rabbit R1)

2. Scaling the problem up and down

from its simplest 1 hour version to one when you have unlimited resources from very specific one user level context to full human population

What would be a 10x specialized and focussed solution possibility for this problem? and its opposite what would be 10x generalised solution to this

3. Put the problem in time travel

Historically were there any similar problems (ofc there will be)? and how were they solved or how were they attempted to solve but failed

In future, how might this problem be solved 10 years down the line?

4. Go from atoms to parallel universes

First principles breakdown

Parallels from other disciplines

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Other fun references:

For businesses: Extreme brainstorming questions to force a perspective which we other wise wont think from