Setting Up Provocations

(p. 163) Why do we need the word 'po'?

"Provocation covers a very wide spectrum.  With provocation we put
forward statements not to describe what is but to make things happen in
our minds.  At the milder end of the spectrum we have phrases like 'what
if...'; 'suppose...'; 'what would happen if....' ... But there is
nothing in language to cover the more extreme end of the specturm, where
a provocation can be something we know to be impossible, contradictory,
or logical nonsense.  There is no word in language to allow us to use
such provocations because language is there to describe reality and such
things could not exist in reality."

"...the deliberate and formal ways of setting up provocations...provide
the systematic provocation tools of lateral thinking."

The Escape Method

1.  Spell out something we take for granted.  Formally and specifically.
2.  "Escape" it.  cancel, negate, drop, remove, deny, or otherwise
revoke it.  This becomes the provocation.

(p. 167) "Anything at all that we take for granted can be 'escaped from'
in order to create a provocation.  It does not matter how impossible or
absurd the resulting provocation may appear."

The Stepping-Stone Methods

    1.  Reversal
    2.  Exaggeration
    3.  Distortion
    4.  Wishful thinking