Oblique Strategies


Help for when you're staring at the wall,
trying to think of the next big thing.

As usual, I'm late to the party. Oblique Strategies is a collection of thoughts based on trying to, well, think obliquely, developed by Brian Eno (better known for his ambient music) and Peter Schmidt. Ran into the strategies today by sheer luck. Or maybe it was a stroke of lightning from the gods: I was stuck on an artistic problem, and I was ready to start banging my head against the wall.

You've been there: It's 3pm, the clock is ticking on someone else's expense account, and you have to come up with a brilliant idea, a stunning design, some memorable words, by 5pm. Your brain is turning in circles, turning to mush, or just plain blank. Better yet, the client is standing there, tapping his foot, expecting you to push your way through by sheer force of will. It's time to start thinking obliquely -- looking at the problem head-on isn't working.

The original was a deck of cards with aphorisms on them to help kick the brain into motion. Instructions from Eno included the order to follow whatever the card said, even if it didn't make sense at the time, that enlightenment would follow, if nothing else by looking at what the next card said. It isn't meant to be oracular, but sometimes the timing is perfect for any kind of problem (particularly of the artistic variety), I must say.

This little program is free for the Mac, written for OS X. I found it helpful already, telling me "bite your tongue" when I clicked on it during a phone conversation with a client that was driving me crazy at the time.

Perhaps the Oracle isn't dead after all.

Try the OS X version from here, at Curved Space, or explore the Eno Space website, which has links to online versions (though they don't list this one at Monospace, which is a site that has not only a javascript popup version, but a rather fun list of links unto itself).

(Check the website at the first link, top of this post, for alternate versions for the PC.)

Posted: Mon - December 1, 2003 at 11:28 PM        

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