Force unrelated concepts together to discover emergent properties - "What if we treated X like Y?"
Revolutionary insights come from forcing unrelated concepts to collide. Treat X like Y and see what emerges.
Core principle: Deliberate metaphor-mixing generates novel solutions.
| Stuck On | Try Treating As | Might Discover |
|---|---|---|
| Code organization | DNA/genetics | Mutation testing, evolutionary algorithms |
| Service architecture | Lego bricks | Composable microservices, plug-and-play |
| Data management | Water flow | Streaming, data lakes, flow-based systems |
| Request handling | Postal mail | Message queues, async processing |
| Error handling | Circuit breakers | Fault isolation, graceful degradation |
Problem: Complex distributed system with cascading failures
Collision: "What if we treated services like electrical circuits?"
Emergent properties:
Where it works: Preventing cascade failures Where it breaks: Circuits don't have retry logic Insight gained: Failure isolation patterns from electrical engineering