A short brainstorm gives you the three obvious ideas everyone gets. This maximizes range instead: it runs your prompt through many different generative lenses — the safe idea, the wild idea, the cheapest idea, the most ambitious, the weirdest, the opposite — to produce a genuinely wide spread, then clusters and shortlists so the volume is usable. Wide first, then narrow.
What This Skill Produces
- A high-volume idea list — many ideas, deliberately varied, generated without early judgment
- Multiple lenses applied — safe / wild / cheap / ambitious / weird / opposite / adjacent-industry angles, so the range is real
- Theme clusters — the ideas grouped so the volume is navigable
- A shortlist — the most promising handful, flagged for a next step
- A wildcard — at least one genuinely out-there option worth a second look
Required Inputs
Ask for these if not provided:
- The prompt — what you need ideas for (a name, a gift, a solution, a plan, a project)
- Any constraints — budget, time, must-haves (applied lightly — this is generation)
- The vibe — practical, creative, or anything-goes
- How many — a rough target (more than you think)
Framework: Many Lenses, Then Cluster
- Generate across lenses, not one. Run the prompt through varied angles — safe, wild, cheap, ambitious, weird, opposite, from-another-field — so ideas differ in kind, not just wording.
- Chase volume, defer judgment. Aim high and don't evaluate mid-generation; quantity and range are the job here.
- Include the wildcards. Deliberately produce a few genuinely strange ideas — they're often where the good ones hide or get sparked.
- Cluster into themes. Group the flood into a few themes so it's usable, not overwhelming.
- Shortlist the promising. Pick the handful worth pursuing and flag one wildcard to keep — the narrowing comes after the widening.
Output Format
Ideas for: [the prompt]
The storm (by lens)
- Safe: […] · Wild: […] · Cheap: […] · Ambitious: […] · Weird: […] · Opposite: […] · From another field: […]
Clustered
- [Theme]: [ideas]. [Theme]: [ideas].
Shortlist: [the most promising few]. Wildcard to keep: [one out-there option].
Quality Checks
- High volume with genuine variety (ideas differ in kind)
- Multiple distinct lenses were applied
- Judgment was deferred during generation
- Ideas are clustered into usable themes
- A shortlist plus a wildcard is provided
Anti-Patterns
- Three obvious ideas and stopping.
- Ideas that are all variations of one concept.
- Judging mid-generation and narrowing too early.
- A flat wall of ideas with no clustering or shortlist.
Example Trigger Phrases
- "Brainstorm ideas for my startup's name."
- "Give me lots of options for a 40th birthday gift."
- "I need ideas for content to post this month."
- "Help me come up with ways to use this spare room."
- "Idea-storm solutions to my team's meeting overload."