creative-thinking

# Creative Thinking Critical thinking is often conflated with evaluation — testing arguments, checking evidence, detecting biases. But equally important is the generative side: producing ideas worth evaluating in the first place. Creative thinking is the discipline of escaping fixed mental models, generating novel options, and reframing problems so that previously invisible solutions become visible. This skill catalogs the core techniques, grounded primarily in de Bono's lateral thinking framework and complementary approaches. **Agent affinity:** de-bono (lateral thinking, Six Hats, PO operators), dewey-ct (reflective thinking that enables creative flexibility), paul (integration) **Concept IDs:** crit-charitable-interpretation, crit-decision-frameworks ## The Creative Thinking Toolbox at a Glance | # | Technique | Purpose | Origin | |---|---|---|---| | 1 | Divergent then convergent | Separate idea generation from evaluation | General | | 2 | Six Thinking Hats | Role-play different thinking modes | de Bono | | 3 | Lateral movement | Escape the dominant pattern | de Bono | | 4 | Provocation (PO) | Use a deliberately absurd statement to generate new paths | de Bono | | 5 | Random stimulation | Use an unrelated word or image as a seed | de Bono | | 6 | Assumption surfacing | List what you are taking for granted, then negate each | General | | 7 | Analogical transfer | Borrow a solution structure from another domain | Gick & Holyoak | | 8 | Reframing | Restate the problem in...