creative-thinking-for-research

# Creative Thinking for Research Eight empirically grounded frameworks from cognitive science, applied to computer science and AI research. Unlike ad-hoc brainstorming, each framework here is backed by decades of creativity research — from Koestler's bisociation to Kauffman's adjacent possible. They target distinct cognitive operations: combining, reformulating, analogizing, constraining, inverting, abstracting, exploring boundaries, and holding contradictions. ## When to Use This Skill - Generating genuinely novel ideas, not incremental extensions of prior work - Feeling trapped in a local optimum of thinking within a single subfield - Wanting to systematically apply creativity heuristics rather than waiting for inspiration - Preparing for a research retreat or PhD-level ideation session - Bridging between fields and seeking structural (not superficial) connections **Do NOT use this skill when**: - You need structured project-level brainstorming workflows (use `brainstorming-research-ideas`) - You have a well-defined problem and need execution help (use domain-specific skills) - You need a literature survey (use `scientific-skills:literature-review`) **Relationship to Brainstorm skill**: The brainstorm skill provides operational workflows (diverge → converge → refine) and practical filters. This skill provides the deeper cognitive engines that power creative leaps. Use them together: creative-thinking to generate raw insight, brainstorm to structure and evaluate it. --...