Synectics
Systematic use of analogy and metaphor for breakthrough associations via Gordon's 4 analogy types and excursion method.
Strategy Routing
| Strategy |
Signal Keywords |
| direct-analogy |
analogy, parallel, similar system, nature, biomimicry, structural similarity |
| personal-analogy |
empathy, become, identify with, first-person, feel like, embody |
| symbolic-analogy |
oxymoron, compressed conflict, poetic image, paradox, essence |
| fantasy-analogy |
wish, ideal, magic, ignore constraints, if only, perfect world |
| excursion-method |
excursion, departure, unrelated domain, force-fit, full process |
Manifest
Strategies
| Strategy |
Description |
| direct-analogy |
Find structurally similar systems in nature/technology/society |
| personal-analogy |
Empathic identification — become the system/component |
| symbolic-analogy |
Compress core contradiction into poetic imagery/oxymoron |
| fantasy-analogy |
Wish-fulfillment thinking — ignore physical laws for ideal solution |
| excursion-method |
Full 8-stage Gordon-Prince excursion process |
Tactics
| Tactic |
Description |
| analogy-extraction |
Extract structural analogies from cross-domain sources (shared) |
| excursion-orchestration |
Orchestrate departure → force-fit → springboard sequence |
| compressed-conflict |
Generate oxymorons from contradictions and extract idea directions |
SOPs
| SOP |
Description |
| direct-analogy-generation |
Find direct analogies from nature/tech/society |
| personal-identification |
First-person empathic identification with system |
| symbolic-compression |
Compress contradiction into 2-3 word oxymoron |
| fantasy-wish |
Unconstrained wish-fulfillment ideation |
| excursion-departure |
Leave problem, explore unrelated domain |
| force-fit |
Force-fit excursion discoveries back to problem |
| analogy-chain |
Chain analogies to deeper levels (3-5 layers) |
| springboard-launch |
Convert analogy insights into concrete solutions |
| synectics-synthesis |
Synthesize all synectics outputs |
Budget Table
| Strategy |
web-search |
web-research |
paper-overview |
paper-search |
paper-research |
| direct-analogy |
25 |
8 |
25 |
15 |
5 |
| personal-analogy |
15 |
5 |
15 |
10 |
3 |
| symbolic-analogy |
15 |
5 |
15 |
10 |
3 |
| fantasy-analogy |
15 |
5 |
15 |
10 |
3 |
| excursion-method |
30 |
10 |
25 |
15 |
8 |
MCP Tools
| Tool |
Server |
Purpose |
| brave_web_search |
brave-search |
General web search for analogies and examples |
| brave_llm_context |
brave-search |
Deep content extraction from web pages |
| apify/rag-web-browser |
apify |
Full page scraping for detailed content |
| get_paper_content |
alphaxiv |
Read academic paper content |
| discover_papers |
alphaxiv |
Find relevant research papers |
| relevanceSearch |
semantic-scholar |
Search academic literature |
| paper |
semantic-scholar |
Get paper details |
| citations |
semantic-scholar |
Trace citation networks |
Context Management
- Each strategy tracks its own budget via State Ledger
- Strategies MUST NOT exceed allocated budget
- Campaign monitors cumulative spend across all strategies
- If a strategy exhausts budget before meeting yield, escalate to campaign level for reallocation
- Prefer paper-overview over paper-research for initial exploration (lower cost)
Available Tactics
| Tactic |
Role |
| analogy-extraction |
Extract structural analogies from cross-domain sources (shared) |
| excursion-orchestration |
Orchestrate departure → force-fit → springboard |
| compressed-conflict |
Generate oxymorons and extract idea directions |
Available SOPs
| SOP |
Role |
| direct-analogy-generation |
Find direct analogies |
| personal-identification |
Empathic identification |
| symbolic-compression |
Oxymoron compression |
| fantasy-wish |
Wish-fulfillment ideation |
| excursion-departure |
Domain departure |
| force-fit |
Force-fit back to problem |
| analogy-chain |
Deepen analogies in layers |
| springboard-launch |
Convert insights to solutions |
| synectics-synthesis |
Final synthesis |
Available Strategies
Optional, no fixed order; the final leaf is always a sop.
| Strategy |
When to use |
| direct-analogy |
Find structurally similar systems in nature/technology/society. Map structural parallels to generate transferable solution principles. |
| excursion-method |
Full 8-stage Gordon-Prince excursion process. Deliberate departure from the problem into unrelated domains, then force-fit discoveries back. |
| fantasy-analogy |
Wish-fulfillment thinking — ignore physical laws for ideal solution. Use unconstrained imagination to reveal what the problem truly needs. |
| personal-analogy |
Empathic identification — become the system/component. First-person embodiment to discover hidden constraints and opportunities. |
| symbolic-analogy |
Compress core contradiction into poetic imagery/oxymoron. Use compressed conflicts to reveal hidden solution directions. |
Available Tactics
Optional, no fixed order; the final leaf is always a sop.
| Tactic |
When to use |
| analogy-extraction |
Extract transferable structural principles from source domains. Orchestrates source identification → abstraction → structural mapping → transfer validation. |
| compressed-conflict |
Generate compressed conflicts (oxymorons) from problem contradictions and extract concrete idea directions from the symbolic tension. |
| evaluation-filtering |
Multi-dimensional evaluation and tiered filtering of generated ideas. Orchestrates novelty assessment → feasibility check → ranking → selection. |
| excursion-orchestration |
Orchestrate the excursion sequence — departure into unrelated domain, force-fit discoveries back to problem, launch springboard ideas. |
Available SOPs
Optional, no fixed order; the final leaf is always a sop.
| SOP |
When to use |
| analogy-chain |
Chain analogies to deeper levels (3-5 layers). Each layer reveals new aspects and insights not visible at the surface. |
| context-checkpoint |
Append research process and results to the current Phase's context file. Covers both process and results with genuine substance. Use this skill at plan-designated checkpoint points — typically after each strategy completes or at key decision nodes within a research Phase. |
| context-init |
Create a new context file for a research Phase. Called once at Phase start to initialize the file that subsequent context-checkpoint calls will append to. Use this skill whenever a new research Phase begins and a fresh context file is needed. |
| creative-ideation-novelty-scoring |
Score ideas on novelty dimensions — structural distance from known solutions, conceptual surprise, domain-crossing depth. Produces ranked novelty assessment. |
| creative-ideation-saturation-detection |
Determine when additional ideation yields diminishing returns. Analyzes latest idea batch against existing corpus to judge continue/near-saturation/saturated. |
| direct-analogy-generation |
Find direct analogies from nature/tech/society that share structural properties with the problem. Produces analogy list with structural mappings. |
| domain-scanning |
Scan distant domains for transferable principles. Uses web-search and paper-overview to identify analogous solutions in unrelated fields. |
| excursion-departure |
Leave the problem entirely and explore an unrelated domain. Produces excursion domain discoveries for later force-fitting. |
| fantasy-wish |
Unconstrained wish-fulfillment ideation. Ignore all physical laws to imagine the ideal solution, then identify realization directions. |
| force-fit |
Force-fit excursion discoveries back to the original problem. Deliberately create connections between unrelated findings and the challenge. |
| idea-synthesis |
Synthesize diverse ideas into coherent solution concepts. Combines fragments from multiple ideation passes into structured, actionable ideas with clear mechanism descriptions. |
| personal-identification |
First-person empathic identification with a system or component. Produces experience description and design insights from embodiment. |
| random-word-stimulus |
Use random word/concept injection as creative stimulus. Selects random concepts and forces connection to the problem space, generating unexpected solution paths. |
| springboard-launch |
Convert analogy insights into concrete feasible solutions. Transform abstract connections into actionable mechanisms. |
| symbolic-compression |
Compress problem contradiction into 2-3 word oxymoron. Produces oxymorons with interpretation directions for each. |
| synectics-synthesis |
Synthesize all synectics outputs into a structured idea report. Combines results from all analogy types and excursion processes. |
1---2name: synectics3description: Synectics Campaign — systematic use of analogy and metaphor for breakthrough associations via Gordon's 4 analogy types and excursion method.4---56# Synectics78Systematic use of analogy and metaphor for breakthrough associations via Gordon's 4 analogy types and excursion method.910## Strategy Routing1112| Strategy | Signal Keywords |13|----------|----------------|14| direct-analogy | analogy, parallel, similar system, nature, biomimicry, structural similarity |15| personal-analogy | empathy, become, identify with, first-person, feel like, embody |16| symbolic-analogy | oxymoron, compressed conflict, poetic image, paradox, essence |17| fantasy-analogy | wish, ideal, magic, ignore constraints, if only, perfect world |18| excursion-method | excursion, departure, unrelated domain, force-fit, full process |1920## Manifest2122### Strategies2324| Strategy | Description |25|----------|-------------|26| direct-analogy | Find structurally similar systems in nature/technology/society |27| personal-analogy | Empathic identification — become the system/component |28| symbolic-analogy | Compress core contradiction into poetic imagery/oxymoron |29| fantasy-analogy | Wish-fulfillment thinking — ignore physical laws for ideal solution |30| excursion-method | Full 8-stage Gordon-Prince excursion process |3132### Tactics3334| Tactic | Description |35|--------|-------------|36| analogy-extraction | Extract structural analogies from cross-domain sources (shared) |37| excursion-orchestration | Orchestrate departure → force-fit → springboard sequence |38| compressed-conflict | Generate oxymorons from contradictions and extract idea directions |3940### SOPs4142| SOP | Description |43|-----|-------------|44| direct-analogy-generation | Find direct analogies from nature/tech/society |45| personal-identification | First-person empathic identification with system |46| symbolic-compression | Compress contradiction into 2-3 word oxymoron |47| fantasy-wish | Unconstrained wish-fulfillment ideation |48| excursion-departure | Leave problem, explore unrelated domain |49| force-fit | Force-fit excursion discoveries back to problem |50| analogy-chain | Chain analogies to deeper levels (3-5 layers) |51| springboard-launch | Convert analogy insights into concrete solutions |52| synectics-synthesis | Synthesize all synectics outputs |5354## Budget Table5556| Strategy | web-search | web-research | paper-overview | paper-search | paper-research |57|----------|-----------|-------------|---------------|-------------|---------------|58| direct-analogy | 25 | 8 | 25 | 15 | 5 |59| personal-analogy | 15 | 5 | 15 | 10 | 3 |60| symbolic-analogy | 15 | 5 | 15 | 10 | 3 |61| fantasy-analogy | 15 | 5 | 15 | 10 | 3 |62| excursion-method | 30 | 10 | 25 | 15 | 8 |6364## MCP Tools6566| Tool | Server | Purpose |67|------|--------|---------|68| brave_web_search | brave-search | General web search for analogies and examples |69| brave_llm_context | brave-search | Deep content extraction from web pages |70| apify/rag-web-browser | apify | Full page scraping for detailed content |71| get_paper_content | alphaxiv | Read academic paper content |72| discover_papers | alphaxiv | Find relevant research papers |73| relevanceSearch | semantic-scholar | Search academic literature |74| paper | semantic-scholar | Get paper details |75| citations | semantic-scholar | Trace citation networks |7677## Context Management7879- Each strategy tracks its own budget via State Ledger80- Strategies MUST NOT exceed allocated budget81- Campaign monitors cumulative spend across all strategies82- If a strategy exhausts budget before meeting yield, escalate to campaign level for reallocation83- Prefer paper-overview over paper-research for initial exploration (lower cost)8485## Available Tactics8687| Tactic | Role |88|--------|------|89| analogy-extraction | Extract structural analogies from cross-domain sources (shared) |90| excursion-orchestration | Orchestrate departure → force-fit → springboard |91| compressed-conflict | Generate oxymorons and extract idea directions |9293## Available SOPs9495| SOP | Role |96|-----|------|97| direct-analogy-generation | Find direct analogies |98| personal-identification | Empathic identification |99| symbolic-compression | Oxymoron compression |100| fantasy-wish | Wish-fulfillment ideation |101| excursion-departure | Domain departure |102| force-fit | Force-fit back to problem |103| analogy-chain | Deepen analogies in layers |104| springboard-launch | Convert insights to solutions |105| synectics-synthesis | Final synthesis |106107<!-- BEGIN available-tables (generated) -->108109## Available Strategies110111Optional, no fixed order; the final leaf is always a sop.112113| Strategy | When to use |114| --- | --- |115| direct-analogy | Find structurally similar systems in nature/technology/society. Map structural parallels to generate transferable solution principles. |116| excursion-method | Full 8-stage Gordon-Prince excursion process. Deliberate departure from the problem into unrelated domains, then force-fit discoveries back. |117| fantasy-analogy | Wish-fulfillment thinking — ignore physical laws for ideal solution. Use unconstrained imagination to reveal what the problem truly needs. |118| personal-analogy | Empathic identification — become the system/component. First-person embodiment to discover hidden constraints and opportunities. |119| symbolic-analogy | Compress core contradiction into poetic imagery/oxymoron. Use compressed conflicts to reveal hidden solution directions. |120121## Available Tactics122123Optional, no fixed order; the final leaf is always a sop.124125| Tactic | When to use |126| --- | --- |127| analogy-extraction | Extract transferable structural principles from source domains. Orchestrates source identification → abstraction → structural mapping → transfer validation. |128| compressed-conflict | Generate compressed conflicts (oxymorons) from problem contradictions and extract concrete idea directions from the symbolic tension. |129| evaluation-filtering | Multi-dimensional evaluation and tiered filtering of generated ideas. Orchestrates novelty assessment → feasibility check → ranking → selection. |130| excursion-orchestration | Orchestrate the excursion sequence — departure into unrelated domain, force-fit discoveries back to problem, launch springboard ideas. |131132## Available SOPs133134Optional, no fixed order; the final leaf is always a sop.135136| SOP | When to use |137| --- | --- |138| analogy-chain | Chain analogies to deeper levels (3-5 layers). Each layer reveals new aspects and insights not visible at the surface. |139| context-checkpoint | Append research process and results to the current Phase's context file. Covers both process and results with genuine substance. Use this skill at plan-designated checkpoint points — typically after each strategy completes or at key decision nodes within a research Phase. |140| context-init | Create a new context file for a research Phase. Called once at Phase start to initialize the file that subsequent context-checkpoint calls will append to. Use this skill whenever a new research Phase begins and a fresh context file is needed. |141| creative-ideation-novelty-scoring | Score ideas on novelty dimensions — structural distance from known solutions, conceptual surprise, domain-crossing depth. Produces ranked novelty assessment. |142| creative-ideation-saturation-detection | Determine when additional ideation yields diminishing returns. Analyzes latest idea batch against existing corpus to judge continue/near-saturation/saturated. |143| direct-analogy-generation | Find direct analogies from nature/tech/society that share structural properties with the problem. Produces analogy list with structural mappings. |144| domain-scanning | Scan distant domains for transferable principles. Uses web-search and paper-overview to identify analogous solutions in unrelated fields. |145| excursion-departure | Leave the problem entirely and explore an unrelated domain. Produces excursion domain discoveries for later force-fitting. |146| fantasy-wish | Unconstrained wish-fulfillment ideation. Ignore all physical laws to imagine the ideal solution, then identify realization directions. |147| force-fit | Force-fit excursion discoveries back to the original problem. Deliberately create connections between unrelated findings and the challenge. |148| idea-synthesis | Synthesize diverse ideas into coherent solution concepts. Combines fragments from multiple ideation passes into structured, actionable ideas with clear mechanism descriptions. |149| personal-identification | First-person empathic identification with a system or component. Produces experience description and design insights from embodiment. |150| random-word-stimulus | Use random word/concept injection as creative stimulus. Selects random concepts and forces connection to the problem space, generating unexpected solution paths. |151| springboard-launch | Convert analogy insights into concrete feasible solutions. Transform abstract connections into actionable mechanisms. |152| symbolic-compression | Compress problem contradiction into 2-3 word oxymoron. Produces oxymorons with interpretation directions for each. |153| synectics-synthesis | Synthesize all synectics outputs into a structured idea report. Combines results from all analogy types and excursion processes. |154155<!-- END available-tables (generated) -->
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