creative-thinking-for-research

1# Creative Thinking for Research
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3Eight 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.
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5## When to Use This Skill
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7- Generating genuinely novel ideas, not incremental extensions of prior work
8- Feeling trapped in a local optimum of thinking within a single subfield
9- Wanting to systematically apply creativity heuristics rather than waiting for inspiration
10- Preparing for a research retreat or PhD-level ideation session
11- Bridging between fields and seeking structural (not superficial) connections
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13**Do NOT use this skill when**:
14- You need structured project-level brainstorming workflows (use `brainstorming-research-ideas`)
15- You have a well-defined problem and need execution help (use domain-specific skills)
16- You need a literature survey (use `scientific-skills:literature-review`)
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18**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.
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