Card #10 – ”Try A Random Idea”

Card #10 – ”Try A Random Idea” from the Creative Whack Pack

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

There once was an Indian medicine man who made hunting maps for his tribe. Whenever game got sparse, he’d put a piece of fresh leather in the sun to dry. Then he’d fold and twist it in his hands, say a few prayers over it, and then smooth it out.

The rawhide was now etched with lines. He then marked some reference points on the rawhide, and — presto! — a new game map was created. When the hunters followed the map’s newly defined trails, they usually discovered abundant game.

Moral: By letting the rawhide’s random folds represent trails, he pointed the hunters to places they had not looked.

Since we tend to use the same-problem solving approaches repeatedly, we usually come up with the same answers. Random information can force us to look at our problems in new ways.

— Open your mind up to things that have nothing in common with your current situation.

• Pick out the 13th word of page 247 of your dictionary. How does it relate to what you’re doing?

• Look out your window and find the first thing that has blue in it. How would it help solve your problem?

• Open the obituary section from your newspaper and read the first two “obits.” What can you apply to your situation from these people’s lives? What random ideas can you connect to a current problem?

— Pick a word at random from the following list.
How does it relate to what you’re doing?

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