Play: Stimulus Generation

When thinking is stuck it is usually stuck in a groove — a narrow set of associations that keeps returning to the same territory because the same concepts keep activating the same networks. A random, unrelated stimulus forces the mind out of that groove by requiring it to build a bridge between an irrelevant input and the actual problem. The bridges that form are often the most original ideas, because they come from outside the problem's own conceptual neighbourhood.

Your Process

Step 1: State the Stuck Problem What is the problem, and what makes it stuck? What solutions have already been considered and found inadequate? What territory keeps getting returned to? Naming the groove is the first step to breaking it.