Oblique Strategies Card Deck
Edition 3 (1979)

Abandon normal instruments 
Accept advice 
Accretion 
A line has two sides 
Allow an easement (an easement is the abandonment of a stricture) 
Always first steps 
Are there sections? Consider transitions 
Ask people to work against their better judgement 
Ask your body 
Assemble some of the elements in a group and treat the group 
Balance the consistency principle with the inconsistency principle 
Be dirty 
Be extravagant 
Be less critical more often 
Breathe more deeply 
Bridges -build -burn 
Cascades 
Change instrument roles 
Change nothing and continue with immaculate consistency 
Children -speaking -singing 
Cluster analysis 
Consider different fading systems 
Consult other sources -promising -unpromising 
Courage! 
Cut a vital connection 
Decorate, decorate 
Define an area as `safe' and use it as an anchor 
Destroy -nothing -the most important thing 
Discard an axiom 
Disciplined self-indulgence 
Disconnect from desire 
Discover the recipes you are using and abandon them 
Distorting time 
Do nothing for as long as possible 
Don't be afraid of things because they're easy to do 
Don't be frightened of cliches 
Don't be frightened to display your talents 
Don't break the silence 
Don't stress one thing more than another 
Do something boring 
Do the words need changing? 
Do we need holes? 
Emphasize differences 
Emphasize repetitions 
Emphasize the flaws 
Fill every beat with something 
From nothing to more than nothing 
Ghost echoes 
Give the game away 
Give way to your worst impulse 
Go outside. Shut the door. 
Go slowly all the way round the outside 
Go to an extreme, move back to a more comfortable place 
Honor thy error as a hidden intention 
How would you have done it? 
Humanize something free of error 
Idiot glee (?) 
Imagine the piece as a set of disconnected events 
Infinitesimal gradations 
Intentions -nobility of -humility of -credibility of 
In total darkness, or in a very large room, very quietly 
Into the impossible 
Is it finished? 
Is the intonation correct? 
Is there something missing? 
It is quite possible (after all) 
Just carry on 
Listen to the quiet voice 
Look at the order in which you do things 
Look closely at the most embarrassing details and amplify them 
Lost in useless territory 
Lowest common denominator 
Make a blank valuable by putting it in an exquisite frame 
Make an exhaustive list of everything you might do and do the last thing on the list 
Make a sudden, destructive unpredictable action; incorporate 
Mechanicalize something idiosyncratic 
Mute and continue 
Not building a wall but making a brick 
Once the search is in progress, something will be found 
Only a part, not the whole 
Only one element of each kind 
(Organic) machinery 
Overtly resist change 
Question the heroic approach 
Remember .those quiet evenings 
Remove ambiguities and convert to specifics 
Remove specifics and convert to ambiguities 
Repetition is a form of change 
Retrace your steps 
Revaluation (a warm feeling) 
Reverse 
Short circuit (example; a man eating peas with the idea that they will improve his virility shovels them straight into his lap) 
Simple subtraction 
Simply a matter of work 
State the problem in words as clearly as possible 
Take a break 
Take away the elements in order of apparent non-importance 
The inconsistency principle 
The most important thing is the thing most easily forgotten 
The tape is now the music 
Think of the radio 
Tidy up 
Towards the insignificant 
Trust in the you of now 
Turn it upside down 
Use an old idea 
Use an unacceptable color 
Use fewer notes 
Use filters 
Use `unqualified' people 
Water 
What are the sections sections of? Imagine a caterpillar moving 
What are you really thinking about just now? 
What is the reality of the situation? 
What mistakes did you make last time? 
What wouldn't you do? 
What would your closest friend do? 
Work at a different speed 
Would anybody want it? 
You are an engineer 
You can only make one dot at a time 
You don't have to be ashamed of using your own ideas 
 