brainstorming

# Brainstorming Skill Asked to brainstorm, a model produces ten reasonable ideas that any competent person would list — which is retrieval, not ideation. Real brainstorming has two phases with a wall between them: **diverge** (volume, no judgment, deliberately weird) then **converge** (explicit criteria, honest scoring). This skill enforces the wall. ## What This Skill Produces - A **divergent set**: 20-40 ideas spanning distinct strategies, not ten variants of one idea - A **convergent shortlist**: 3-5 selected against criteria named *before* scoring - The **reject ledger**: what was set aside and why — half the value, always preserved ## Required Inputs Ask for (if not already provided): - **The problem or prompt**, and what an idea must accomplish to count - **Constraints that are real** (budget/tech/brand) vs assumed — challenge one assumed constraint deliberately - **What's been tried or rejected already** (avoids retreading; also reveals the requester's hidden criteria) ## Divergent Phase (no judgment permitted) 1. **Quota past the obvious.** The first 8-10 ideas are what anyone would say — produce them fast to exhaust them, then keep going; ideas 15-30 are where non-obvious lives. 2. **Rotate strategies, don't rephrase.** Generate down distinct axes, a few ideas per axis: - **Inversion** — what would make the problem *worse*? Reverse each answer - **Extremes** — the $0 version; the $10M version; the version shipping tomorrow - **Transplant** — how does ...