Your first idea is your only idea
You stop at the obvious answer because it arrived first.
Courses
See what you would learn
Get past your first idea to a better one.
A course on generating ideas deliberately. It covers why the first answer is usually the most conventional, how connection and perspective shifts produce originality, and how to explore several possibilities before choosing.
Open Cadence on the App Store, type the sentence when it asks what you want to learn, and answer a few setup questions. Free to start. Android testers can request early access.
Type this when Cadence asks what you want to learn
I want to generate more original ideas instead of stopping at my first answer. Help me practice making connections, changing perspectives, and exploring several possibilities.
Change any word so it fits your situation. The course is built from what you type and a few setup questions.
- Best for
- Creativity
- Prerequisites
- None. Bring the situation you have.
- Course length
- 7 to 30 lessons, sized to your goal
- Lesson pace
- About 10 minutes a day
- Format
- Read it, or play the audio
- Access
- Available on the App Store, with early features and Android testing access
Before the course is built
Setup asks about your situation first.
Lesson 1 opens on the moment you describe, and the examples use your role. For this request, expect questions like these.
- Where do you need ideas: work problems, creative projects, or both?
- Do you generate too few ideas, or plenty that all look alike?
- Is there a problem you are working on now?
Right for now
If any of this sounds familiar, start here.
Your ideas resemble everyone else's
Brainstorms produce the same list every time.
Originality feels like a gift you lack
Some people seem to have it and you do not.
Course arc
Where the course goes, in order.
Cadence writes the lessons for you, so the exact path follows your answers. This is the ground a course built from this sentence covers.
01 / 06Why the first idea is conventional
How memory and habit hand you the familiar answer first.
Quantity before quality
Why more ideas, including bad ones, lead to better ones.
Connection
Combining unrelated things, and how to do it on purpose.
Perspective shifts
Constraints, inversions and other people's eyes as generators.
Incubation
Why stepping away works, and how to use it rather than hope for it.
A practice
Building idea generation into how you approach problems.
What changes
What you will be able to do, and what you will stop believing.
You will be able to
Push past the obvious
Generate options beyond the first conventional answer.
Combine and shift
Use connection and changed perspective to find ideas you would not have reached directly.
Explore before choosing
Hold several possibilities open long enough to compare them.
Ideas this course corrects
Original ideas come from nowhere
They come from combinations of existing things. Originality is mostly recombination done well.
Creative people are born that way
Creative output tracks method and volume far more than temperament.
Course questions
What to know before you start.
Is this a fixed course?
No. Cadence builds the course when you type the sentence and answer a few setup questions, so the lessons follow your situation. This page describes what a course built from this request covers. You see the whole path before Lesson 1.
Who is this course for?
A course on generating ideas deliberately. It covers why the first answer is usually the most conventional, how connection and perspective shifts produce originality, and how to explore several possibilities before choosing. It sits under Creativity in the Ideas & discovery part of the library.
Do I need any prior experience?
No. Setup asks what you already know and where you want to use it, and the course starts from there. Bring a real situation if you have one; the examples are built around it.
How long does it take?
Courses run 7 to 30 lessons of about 10 minutes, sized to what you asked for. One lesson a day is the intended pace, and you can go faster. Lessons can be read or played as audio.
Does this course award a certificate or degree?
No. Cadence is for practical self-learning and does not award accredited degrees or professional certification.
Start today
Type it, answer a few questions, open Lesson 1.
The sentence to type
I want to generate more original ideas instead of stopping at my first answer. Help me practice making connections, changing perspectives, and exploring several possibilities.
Open Cadence on the App Store, type the sentence when it asks what you want to learn, and answer a few setup questions. Free to start. Android testers can request early access.