As a result, you can now download replica versions of the Oblique Strategies as an app for iPhone and Android. Luckily, we now live in an era where everything is accessible as long as you have an internet connection. The Strategies were created alongside Eno’s close friend and mentor, the painter Peter Schmidt, and began as a limited press set of cards that were extremely difficult to track down, even for the biggest of Eno heads. Lateral thinking is the philosophy of approaching problems from an indirect, creative angle. Oblique Strategies started out as a card-based method designed to encourage the exploration of lateral thinking as a means of solving creative dilemmas. While Eno’s framework may be a singular way of being, impossible to directly emulate or reproduce, he has made efforts to pass on his wisdom to others through his writings and through Oblique Strategies: a set of axioms, transcribed onto cue cards and derived from the Chinese Divination system, the I Ching. Rather, Eno embodied a mental framework for dealing with success, failure, tribulation, and innovation. Brian Eno did not achieve success through blind luck or pure hard work, though both contributing factors. It is hard to imagine that any one person could excel and innovate in so many different creative mediums. In addition, Brian Eno is a noteworthy visual artist, philosopher, and musical theorist. Starting off as an esoteric and free-wheeling electronic glam pop pioneer before moving into the world of contemplative ambient soundscapes, Eno is a true trailblazer: on one hand straddling the line of his era’s pop sensibilities, on the other hand fearlessly innovating or expanding on conventional sonar wisdom.Įno’s list of classics is undeniable-from Another Green World to Ambient 1: Music for Airports and that’s not even including the gems he had a hand in producing-most notably David Bowie’s iconic Berlin trilogy, as well as some Talking Heads, Devo, and U2 albums. The mercurial renaissance man has dabbled in almost every type of creative endeavor imaginable. He has a unique knack for embracing the ambiance of life.

Robert Fripp, long-time Eno collaboratorīrian Eno is a man that seems to infuse positivity and creativity in everything he has ever touched- that spirit, that willingness to embrace failure and to approach everything from a playful, intuitive and creative perspective, is one that can serve to enrich our lives and empower our contributions to the world. Instinct puts us in the moment, intellect is slower.” Although Eno is considered an intellectual, and clearly he has more than sufficient wit, it’s Brian’s instinctive and intuitive choices that impress me. “The key to Brian, from my view, is his sense of play.

Brian eno oblique strategies cards