Card #35 – ”Substitute”

Card #35 – ”Substitute” from the Creative Whack Pack

Available on the iOS App Store and as a physical deck of cards

“Accept no substitutes” could never be the motto of the creative process.

As a matter of fact, human progress is often the result of substituting one idea, thing, or process for another: words for grunts, tools for fingers, money for goods.

If you’ve ever used a potato for a radio antenna, or created a knife from a broken light bulb, you have this ability.

Indeed, much of creativity is the ability to take something out of one context and put it into another so that it takes on new meanings.

The first person to look at an oyster and think food had this ability.

So did the first person to look at sheep intestines and think guitar strings.

And so did the first person to look at a perfume vaporizer and think gasoline carburetor, and the first person to look at bacterial mold and think antibiotics.

— What things, resources, and people can be substituted for in your problem?

— What can replace the most expensive part of your concept?

— How about the most time-consuming?

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