The goal of Brutethink is to develop new solution ideas by linking aspects of a problem that do not obviously belong together. Brutethink (after Michael Michalko 1991, further developed by Michael Luther 2009) as an idea generation technique is a variation of the well-known stimulus word technique.
The method forces the user to establish relationships that are not spontaneously recognized. This offers potential for new ideas because the solution to the problem is not limited to conventional approaches, but provokes new solutions.
To do this, you define a goal or problem and choose a random word. This random word can come from the problem context or from a completely foreign context, for example, a dictionary or a newspaper. By random association, terms are thought up, which are then related to the random word and the defined target.
The advantage of the method is that the identified relationships provide new insights and can thus be the basis of a new problem solution. Brutethink builds on the random stimuli method.
Brutethink makes you perceive objects and processes of your routine in a new context because you juxtapose them with a randomly chosen term. The method works so well because it makes use of a special peculiarity of our brain: We can only concentrate on two completely different topics/objects to a very limited extent. As quickly as possible, our brain tries to establish a connection between the two and “fills” the gap.