Geek Chic: Oblique Strategies Oracle

Too many people fail to recognize that scientific research is itself a creative endeavor, where scientists toil endlessly on problems without easy or obvious solutions. Over 30 years ago, legendary musician and music producer Brian Eno and his friend Peter Schmidt created a deck of cards called Oblique Strategies, which is meant to be used when you find yourself in a creative block. While meant for artists, the Oblique Strategies suggestions are general enough to work for scientific or any other kind of problem solving. Now the deck is available online as a downloadable widget for your Mac OS X Dashboard, PC, or PalmPilot. If you're stuck, say, trying to debug a program or finish a paper, you can just pull a card (real or virtual) for some inspiration, such as "Be extravagant" or "Retrace your steps." (via Cool Tools)