Cards for Insight: Complex Dilemmas
Gathering around complex dilemmas, formulated as generative center questions.
Address complex dilemmas by transforming
generative questions into actionable insights.
Card: Simplicity
The elegance and clarity found in a
straightforward approach, reducing
noise to focus on essence.
Card: Complexity
The intricate and multifaceted
nature of systems, requiring deep
understanding and navigation.
“…the only simplicity to be trusted
is the simplicity to be found on
the far side of complexity.”
― Alfred North Whitehead
Card: Simplicity Beyond Complexity
The profound clarity achieved after
understanding and integrating the
complexities of a system.
Card: Insight
A sudden awareness of
the solution to a problem.
Card: Sign Use
Through interpretations and responses,
sign use guide living systems towards
paths of growth and evolution.
Card: Adjacent Possible
The set of opportunities and innovations
that are just beyond the current state of
intelligence, knowledge and capability.
Card: Story
Imagine thought as a journey
through an intricate landscape.
Card: Conscious Evolution
A purposeful shift in individual
and collective awareness leading
to intentional and responsible
co-creation of the future.
Add the above cards to a Cards for Insight
3x3 gameboard, then add your thoughts
and insights to and between them.
The 3x3 can be situated in a 3D diagram, see below.
Cards for Insight: How Does It Work?
Users combine cards to explore new perspectives, reveal patterns, and uncover innovative solutions to complex problems. The Cards for Insight platform is designed to support both individual and collaborative exploration. As users play, the system provides prompts and feedback based on human association, AI-assisted annotation, card-play insights and the structured relationships between the cards.
Individual, small group and collective needs can be addressed through the cards. Progress can be tracked through three axes in a diagram.
x: collective: intelligence turned ability
y: individual: behavior turned agency
z: small group: information turned knowledge
Cards for Insight: Cards and Patterns of Play^n
The texts below, beginning and ending with …, are patterns of play.
They are patterns of play we choose, between the cards.
The “^n” refers to a generative superset of patterns available in
the Cards for Insight approach.
… gather around complex dilemmas,
formulated as generative center questions …
Card: Insight
A sudden awareness of
the solution to a problem.
… add your thoughts to
and between the cards …
Card: Insight
A catalytic, clear, meaningful, generative,
comprehensive, perspective-shifting and
profound perception into behavior and
understanding.
… engage in card-play conversations
conducive to turning insights actionable …
Cards for Insight: How Does It Work?
Users combine cards to explore new perspectives, reveal patterns, and uncover innovative solutions to complex problems. The Cards for Insight platform is designed to support both individual and collaborative exploration. As users play, the system provides prompts and feedback based on human association, AI-assisted annotation, card-play insights and the structured relationships between the cards.
Cards for Insight: Generative Center Questions
What do we need to build
in order to see ourselves
through the 21st century?
… gather around complex dilemmas,
formulated as generative center questions …
… add your thoughts to
and between the cards …
… engage in card-play conversations
conducive to turning insights actionable …
Cards for Insight: Combinatorial Power
With 500 cards, the possible combinations are immense.
Two-card combinations offer over 120,000 unique pairings,
while three-card combinations result in over 21 million possibilities.
These combinations can unlock new ways of thinking by juxtaposing seemingly unrelated ideas, encouraging users to:
- Discover new patterns: Connect disparate concepts to reveal underlying structures.
- Ask better questions: Reframe challenges through novel lenses.
- Generate solutions: Combine insights into actionable insights, strategies or approaches.
Cards for Insight: Patterning and Flow; Flow and Patterning
Card: Patterning
Engage with the dynamic process of
recognizing and generating patterns.
This iterative process fuels creativity
and insight as new connections
emerge through play and over time.
and gain insight around a chosen question
— How would we know?
— Flow. Flow is how you know.
flow = structure x process
“x” = patterning in general and (shared) understanding in particular
where flow represents the dynamic movement and transformation of knowledge and insight, structure provides the framework and organization, and process involves the actions and interactions that generate new understanding.
Card: Understanding
What if understanding is our ability
to hold space for the possibility of
knowledge, as it emerges, unfolds,
directs and discloses its relevance to
unexplored aspects of things known?
… cultivate (shared) understanding
as generative closure …
Cards for Insight: A Deep Learning Cycle
Card: Story
Imagine thought as a journey
through an intricate landscape.
Card: Story
Imagine thought as a journey through an
intricate landscape. Each card is a step,
a tool for navigation, uncovering hidden
paths, and connecting distant ideas.
Card: Story
Imagine thought as a journey through an intricate landscape. Each card is a step, a tool for navigating this terrain, uncovering hidden paths, and connecting seemingly distant ideas. With each move, the landscape becomes clearer, and what was once a maze of confusion turns into a map of understanding. As you progress, you’re not alone — others join you, their perspectives enriching the journey, their insights combining with yours to form a powerful collective force. This is Cards for Insight: a toolset for navigating the mind’s landscape, turning thought into action, and crafting a shared story of discovery and innovation.
Card: Story
Card-play experiences turned
path unfoldment, a learning
journey through a multiplicity
of timely narratives.
