Oblique Strategies
I had forgotten about Brian Eno and Music for Airports. There were several years of my life where I listened to it a lot. I was reminded of it today and that made me think of Oblique Strategies – a deck of cards published in 1975 by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt. There have been several editions of the deck with version 5 available now.
Each card contains some alternate idea for thinking about and dealing with a situation and although they are not always directly relevant or obvious, it is interesting to contemplate their relationship to whatever creative work you might be doing. The cards say things like:
Figure out what recipes you are using and get rid of them.
Put in earplugs.
Look at the order in which you do things.
Make an exhaustive list of everything you might do and do the last thing on the list.
Accept advice.
Listen to the quiet voice.
It’s sort of like a magic 8 ball except Brian Eno wrote it and so it’s actually much cooler and perhaps useful to use the deck as a way to rethink things when you are stuck. There are a few web pages out there that let you ‘consult the deck online,’ including this one by Josh Harrison. If you prefer shuffling and selecting from the deck, you can buy the 5th edition from the Eno Shop.
Oblique Strategies is available for the iPhone too.