Oblique Strategies
Oblique Strategies is a set of aphoristic prompts created by musician Brian Eno and artist Peter Schmidt in 1975 to help artists and creators break through creative blocks. Each card offers an indirect, often paradoxical instruction ("Use an old idea," "What would your closest friend do?", "Honour thy error as a hidden intention") that redirects attention away from the stuck approach and toward an oblique entry point. The method formalises the intuition that breakthroughs often come sideways, not from pushing harder in the stuck direction.