The Oblique Strategies

The "Oblique Strategies" Deck was designed by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt. The individual cards are as follows:

• "A line has two sides"
• "Remove specifics and convert to ambiguities"
• "Don't be frightened of cliches"
• "What is the reality of the situation?"
• "Are there sections? Consider transitions"
• "Turn it upside down"
• "Think of the radio"
• "Allow an easement (an easement is the abandonment of a stricture)"
• "Simple subtraction"
• "Go slowly all the way round the outside"
• "Make an exhaustive list of everything you might do and do the last thing on the list"
• "Into the impossible"
• "Ask people to work against their better judgement"
• "Take away the elements in order of apparent non-importance"
• "Infinitesimal gradations"
• "Change instrument roles"
• "Accretion"
• "Disconnect from desire"
• "Emphasize repetitions"
• "Don't be afraid of things because they're easy to do"
• "Don't be frightened to display your talents"
• "Breathe more deeply"
• "Honor thy error as a hidden intention"
• "Only one element of each kind"
• "Is there something missing?"
• "Use 'unqualified' people"
• "How would you have done it?"
• "Emphasize differences"
• "Do nothing for as long as possible"
• "Bridges -build -burn"
• "You don't have to be ashamed of using your own ideas"
• "Tidy up"
• "Do the words need changing?"
• "Ask your body"
• "Water"
• "Make a sudden, destructive unpredictable action; incorporate"
• "Consult other sources -promising -unpromising"
• "Use an unacceptable color"
• "Humanize something free of error"
• "Use filters"
• "Fill every beat with something"
• "Discard an axiom"
• "What wouldn't you do?"
• "Decorate, decorate"
• "Balance the consistency principle with the inconsistency principle"
• "Listen to the quiet voice"
• "Is it finished?"
• "Put in earplugs"
• "Give the game away"
• "Abandon normal instruments"
• "Use fewer notes"
• "Repetition is a form of change"
• "Give way to your worst impulse"
• "Reverse"
• "Trust in the you of now"
• "What would your closest friend do?"
• "Distorting time"
• "Make a blank valuable by putting it in an exquisite frame"
• "Ghost echoes"
• "You can only make one dot at a time"
• "Just carry on"
• "(Organic) machinery"
• "The inconsistency principle"
• "Don't break the silence"
• "Discover the recipes you are using and abandon them"
• "Cascades"
• "Courage!"
• "What mistakes did you make last time?"
• "Consider different fading systems"
• "Mute and continue"
• "It is quite possible (after all)"
• "Don't stress one thing more than another"
• "You are an engineer"
• "Remove ambiguities and convert to specifics"
• "Look at the order in which you do things"
• "Go outside. Shut the door."
• "Do we need holes?"
• "Cluster analysis"
• "Do something boring"
• "Define an area as 'safe' and use it as an anchor"
• "Overtly resist change"
• "Accept advice"
• "Work at a different speed"
• "Look closely at the most embarrassing details and amplify them"
• "Mechanicalize something idiosyncratic"
• "Emphasize the flaws"
• "Remember those quiet evenings"
• "Take a break"
• "Short circuit (example; a man eating peas with the idea that they will improve his virility shovels them straight into his lap)"
• "Use an old idea"
• "Destroy -nothing -the most important thing"
• "Change nothing and continue with immaculate consistency"
• "The tape is now the music"
• "Be dirty"
• "What are the sections sections of? Imagine a caterpillar moving"
• "Intentions -nobility of -humility of -credibility of"
• "Imagine the piece as a set of disconnected events"
• "What are you really thinking about just now?"
• "Assemble some of the elements in a group and treat the group"
• "Shut the door and listen from outside"
• "Is the intonation correct?"
• "Look at a very small object, look at its centre"
• "Children's voices -speaking -singing"
• "Feed the recording back out of the medium"
• "Towards the insignificant"
• "Simply a matter of work"
• "Not building a wall but making a brick"
• "Revaluation (a warm feeling)"
• "The most important thing is the thing most easily forgotten"
• "Idiot glee (?)"
• "Be extravagant"
• "State the problem in words as clearly as possible"
• "Disciplined self-indulgence"
• "Always first steps"
• "Question the heroic approach"
• "Lost in useless territory"
• "Always give yourself credit for having more than personality"
• "Faced with a choice, do both"
• "Tape your mouth"
• "Get your neck massaged"
• "Do the washing up"
• "Convert a melodic element into a rhythmic element"
• "Spectrum analysis"
• "Twist the spine"
• "Left channel, right channel, centre channel"
• "Lowest common denominator check -single beat -single note -single riff"
• "In total darkness, or in a very large room, very quietly"
• "Would anybody want it?"
• "Retrace your steps"
• "Go to an extreme, move back to a more comfortable place"
• "Once the search is in progress, something will be found"
• "Only a part, not the whole"
• "From nothing to more than nothing"
• "Be less critical more often"