# Creative Annealing > Runs a structured, simulated-annealing-style ideation process — wide divergent exploration (including ideas that deliberately work against the stated goal) followed by staged elimination rounds down to exactly 3 final ideas, each round's survivors justified. Trigger ALWAYS when the user says "creative-annealing", with or without further detail (topic, starting count). Partial or missing info (topic only, count only, or just the bare trigger word) still triggers this skill — resolve missing pieces via the intake questions below. Do NOT trigger for generic creativity/brainstorming requests that don't use this specific trigger term. - Skill: `memyselfandivo/creative-annealing` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 3 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add memyselfandivo/creative-annealing` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/memyselfandivo/creative-annealing/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Docs & Writing - Author: memyselfandivo (https://skillmd.com/u/memyselfandivo) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/memyselfandivo/creative-annealing --- # Creative Annealing A multi-round ideation process modeled on simulated annealing: generate ideas at "high temperature" (wide, unfiltered, including ideas that run counter to the goal), then "cool" through elimination rounds that transform rather than just filter, converging on exactly 3 ideas. Every surviving idea carries a reason; nothing is discarded without a visible trail the user can revisit later. ## 1. Trigger handling On seeing "creative-annealing": - **Full form** (trigger + topic + starting count all present): skip intake questions, go straight to Step 2 (clarification). - **Bare trigger** (topic and/or count missing): ask only for what's missing, one question at a time: 1. "What idea or problem is this about?" 2. "How many ideas should the exploration round start with?" — if asked for a recommendation, suggest **7** (below that there's no real intermediate elimination round before the mandatory final round of 3, so 7 keeps the staged process meaningful). ## 2. Clarification Before exploring, briefly clarify only what's genuinely unclear: - The concrete problem/topic - Relevant constraints, target audience, context of use Also determine (silently — not necessarily by asking the user): - **Goal direction**: the obvious, conventional direction a solution would take - **Opposite direction**: its plausible opposite Not every goal has a clean opposite — for abstract goals it may feel somewhat constructed. Pick a reasonable one and move on rather than searching for a perfect fit. ## 3. Exploration round (high temperature) Generate exactly N ideas (N = starting count). No evaluation, no filtering, no self-censoring — weak, extreme, or impractical-looking ideas belong here too. Spread the N ideas across three directions relative to the goal (~25/50/25, approximate — doesn't need to divide evenly): - **Counter-direction (~25%)**: ideas that explicitly work AGAINST the goal or pursue its opposite. Example — goal "attract more young customers": ideas that explicitly serve an older audience, or actively avoid attracting new customers. - **Creative-lateral (~50%)**: broadly creative ideas off the direct path — neither clearly toward the goal nor clearly against it. Vary this bucket internally too: some can push to an extreme within the goal's own domain, others can come from an entirely different domain. No need to label the split — just make the ideas themselves genuinely different from each other. - **Goal-direction (~25%)**: the conventional creative ideas a normal brainstorm would produce anyway. This distribution IS the point of the exploration round. A round where nearly every idea sits in the goal-direction bucket (just increasingly polished variations of the same thing) has missed the method's core idea. For EVERY idea, give: - **Idea**: short, concrete - **Direction**: one of the three (Counter-direction / Creative-lateral / Goal-direction) - **Approach**: one sentence naming the underlying strategy (e.g. "reversing user expectations", "combining two unrelated industries", "radical simplification", "analogy from nature") — this is the anchor the user can later reference for a discarded idea. ## 4. Round plan Compute the full round plan once, right after exploration, and show it (e.g. "Round plan: 10 → 7 → 4 → 3") before the first elimination round. ``` R (reduction per round) = clamp( round(0.30 × N), 2, floor(0.50 × N) ) ``` - N = starting count, fixed for the whole run - Minimum: 2 fewer per round - Maximum: 50% of N - Target: 30% of N, rounded ``` remaining = N while remaining > 3: next = remaining - R if next <= 3: next = 3 # final round always lands exactly on 3 remaining = next ``` Examples: N=7 → 7→5→3. N=10 → 10→7→4→3. N=20 → 20→14→8→3. ## 5. Elimination rounds (cooling) Not pure filtering — especially for Counter-direction and Creative-lateral ideas. Actively rework/bend surviving ideas toward the goal rather than discarding anything that isn't already close. This is where the actual creative payoff happens: an idea that deliberately ran against the goal in exploration gets transformed over 1-2 rounds until it contributes to the goal via an unexpected path. Example: a counter-direction idea ("deliberately design the shop for older, traditional readers") can be turned, next round, into a goal-serving one ("dusty-traditional becomes a quirky, cozy countryside aesthetic that's a cult favorite among young people") — instead of being cut just because it doesn't look goal-aligned at first glance. Select the number of survivors set by the round plan. Ideas may be refined, bent, or merged into a new idea. For EVERY surviving idea, give: - **Idea**: current state (may be refined/transformed from the previous round) - **Direction**: keep the ORIGINAL direction from Step 3, even once the idea sits closer to the goal — this preserves visibility into where each surviving idea came from - **Reasoning**: why it survived this round, relative to what got cut — if transformed, briefly explain how it moved toward the goal Don't list eliminated ideas explicitly — they're already visible in the previous round. The user can reference an earlier round anytime ("what happened to approach X", "combine X with Y"). ## 6. Final round Exactly 3 ideas, same format as elimination rounds (idea + reasoning), clearly marked as the conclusion — reasoning here can be a bit fuller since this is the final selection. ## Output format ``` ## Round plan: N → ... → 3 ## Round 1: Exploration (N ideas) 1. **[Idea]** — Direction: [Counter-direction/Creative-lateral/Goal-direction] — Approach: [...] 2. ... ## Round 2: Elimination ([count] ideas) 1. **[Idea]** — Direction: [original direction] — Reasoning: [...] 2. ... [additional elimination rounds if any] ## Final round (3 ideas) 1. **[Idea]** — Direction: [original direction] — Reasoning: [...] 2. ... 3. ... ``` After the final round, briefly offer that the user can combine or revive ideas from earlier rounds.