Chapter Twenty-Three: Blue Roses (or: Green Roses, How Crazy Would That Be)

Based on an exercise outlined in the book "Thinkertoys"

Intuition is a funny thing. Sometimes it is incredibly helpful, sometimes it is incredibly harmful; but it's always difficult to define. Intuition is very separate from reasonable thought, but can be combined with reason for a better result. Sometimes, our intuition practically seems a precognitive ability; whenever I'm just about to sit down to eat and my phone rings, I know with terrible certainty that my mother will be on the other end of the line, and thus far I've rarely been incorrect in this assumption.

There's a creative thinking technique dubbed "Brainwriting" which attempts to leverage the power of intuition. Basically, I write down questions relating to some issues and then just stare blankly into space until an answer pops into my head, and hastily write the answers down. Seems simple! Let's try it.

I will try to figure out what sort of informational "How To" speech I should give for my Techniques of Speaking class on Friday.

Questions

What will take approximately five minutes to explain?

What will keep my audience (college students) interested?

What do I have the props for / can I use PowerPoint to explain?

What do I know that doesn't relate to gaming?

What's an esoteric subject I could explore, rather than a practical one?

Answers:

...

...

...

I can't think of a darned thing. This would be the problem with intuition, I suppose; I've stared blankly at the wall for about half an hour and haven't come up with anything that fit the necessary parameters.

Closing thoughts on this exercise:

Well, this is the first time I actually failed to turn up anything at all useful from a Thinkertoys exercise, though I think I may have to revisit this later because the fault could just be in my frame of mind. Still, I can't peg this as the most reliable idea generator.

A short note about my creative environment:

For this exercise it was advised that I find a creative, zen-like environment, so I returned to my cave and wrote this in the comfort of my dorm room. It's pretty late, and the sun gave up the ghost awhile back, so the only light is from the room light. My roommate's deeply absorbed in something and being quiet as a ghost, though for good measure I threw on droning music to help drown the outside world out. I just got food, so I'm well-fed, and it's nice and cool in the room.