FAQ
Is Skydeas really free?
Yes, Skydeas itself and all content on this website is open source and licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
What can I do with Skydeas?
Skydeas helps to solve problems and produce new ideas. Skydeas can also be used to create many new variants of a basic idea. Here, you can get started right away!
How does Skydeas work?
On the start page you will find a 3-minute video tutorial, on the background page you will find information on the scientific background and how to generate new ideas with Skydeas in 3 steps.
Why a new creativity technique? Why not use brainstorming, lateral thinking or design thinking?
Skydeas is the first creativity technique that is both simple and intuitive, as well as scientifically sound. In contrast to techniques based on random associations, Skydeas takes a targeted and systematic approach. On the comparison page you will find a comparison between Skydeas and other creativity techniques. And here, you can get started right away!
Creativity is and remains an irrational process that cannot be controlled. Trying to control such a random process via a system does not work and, in the worst case, is even counterproductive.
That is wrong. Psychological creativity research has been investigating creative processes for decades. Numerous studies have shown that the eureka moment is only a very brief, albeit important, part of the process. Equally important are the preparation and elaboration phases, which are strongly rational in nature. Brainstorming and lateral thinking have also shown through their countless applications that creative thinking can be promoted through suitable associations. Finally, TRIZ has successfully provided empirical evidence that systematic support through all phases of the problem-solving process is highly productive and even necessary for more complex problems.
Languages differ greatly in the number, function and meaning of verbs. In some languages, actions are not even expressed by verbs. It is therefore pointless to use verbs as the basis for operations, transformations and actions.
This conclusion is not appropriate. Skydeas is limited to 2 languages, namely English and German, in which mainly verbs express changes, processes and transformations. In fact, verbs are also the carriers of this information in many other languages.
Verbs in particular are known to have many meanings. It is therefore unclear which meaning of a verb is selected for the respective underlying “concept”. Even speakers of a single language often do not agree on what a word means.
In fact, verbs have many meanings. Semantics research provides many different answers. We use the following approach: We choose the meaning that comes closest to the concept we are looking for, has as few secondary meanings as possible and is as general and abstract as possible.
If semantic and pragmatic research has shown one thing, it is that the context of a word is crucial. Declaring a verb as an elementary operation without context is pointless.
Since the problem to be solved is linked to this operation by association, the expert’s background knowledge provides the context.
The system is not suitable for really complex tasks of a scientific and technical nature, as it does not provide any systematic help in this area. A “collection of words” is not enough here. TRIZ has shown that many different, precisely fitting tools must be used to address the different phases of the problem-solving process.
The creativity system presented here has deliberately not followed the same path as TRIZ, as it has been shown that TRIZ is too complex for widespread use. Not everyone is prepared to invest months or years in order to be able to use a creativity system. In fact, it is a trade-off. The power of the system is based on the background knowledge of the respective expert in combination with the elementary operations. It therefore claims to be able to solve even complex scientific and technical problems.
TRIZ is often criticized for being too abstract. This system is even more abstract. You won’t really be able to work with it.
In fact, the elementary operations are abstract. They form the counterpart to the highly concrete parts of the system for which a solution is being sought. All that is needed to bring these two counterparts together is the basic principle of association. This is so easy that any child can do it. You will be surprised how easy it is.
There are many different types of creativity. How is a single system, which also consists only of words, supposed to cover them all? That cannot work. How is a painter, for example, supposed to work with words?
The system may indeed be unsuitable or less suitable for some areas. However, it is a system of elementary operations – so the claim is actually to get an overview of all fundamental transformations relating to any system via an association process. As a result, a painter, for example, can also get new clues to new implementation possibilities by asking questions such as “What new technique could I use to draw X?” or “How else can theme Y be depicted?”. Start right here!