A different question in the recording studio
Sometimes a creative problem survives because we keep approaching it in the same way. Working harder may deepen the groove. Brian Eno’s account of Oblique Strategies offers another possibility: interrupt the process with a prompt you would not have chosen for yourself.
There is a documented connection to the I Ching, but it is more specific than saying that all chance-based creative tools are the same. Eno discussed the relationship directly in an interview with Glenn O’Brien, republished by Interview magazine.
Eno’s own account of the connection
Asked whether he had used the I Ching, Eno said yes, and linked his interest in it with his developing interest in Oblique Strategies. He described different ways of understanding an oracle: as carrying wisdom, as changing perception, or as some combination of the two.
He explained that Oblique Strategies addressed more particular working situations. In the same interview, he described the cards as a way of questioning a direction when work stalled, and said he selected them at random. The connection is an approach to loosening habitual responses, not a claim that the cards reproduce an I Ching consultation.
A collaboration with Peter Schmidt
Eno’s official shop credits Oblique Strategies to Eno and artist Peter Schmidt, dating its creation to 1975. The deck offers concise prompts intended to help creative people approach a blockage from an unfamiliar angle.
The two systems have different materials and histories. Oblique Strategies uses a deck of written prompts; an I Ching consultation works with hexagrams and their associated texts. Respecting that difference makes their shared appeal easier to discuss: an unexpected instruction can ask a useful question without becoming an instruction you must obey.
Try a small change of perspective
Here is our own exercise, inspired by the idea of interrupting a routine. Choose a small creative problem: the opening of a piece of writing, a colour choice, or a project you keep postponing. Put your current solution into one sentence before using a prompt.
Afterwards, write down one alternative you can actually test. Keep the first version so you can compare them. Did the change help? Would you choose it again? That small experiment leaves room for surprise while keeping your judgement involved.
This is our contemporary reflection on the example, not an Oblique Strategies card, an Eno quotation or a traditional I Ching technique. For his account and the original product, follow the sources below.