10 Think Toolkits to help you Think beyond what is available

 

Thinking beyond what's available requires transcending the boundaries of current resources, knowledge, and possibilities. These ten toolkits will help you expand your mental horizons to envision and create solutions that don't yet exist.

1. The Impossible Assumption Reverser

Start by assuming the "impossible" is possible and work backward to find pathways.

How to apply it:

• Take your most ambitious goal and assume it's already achieved
• Ask: "If this impossible thing were possible, what would have to be true?"
• List all the conditions, technologies, or changes that would make it feasible
• Work backward from the "impossible" outcome to identify necessary precursors
• Look for emerging trends or technologies that might enable these conditions
• Find analogies where similar "impossibilities" became reality
• Create action plans that work toward making the necessary conditions exist

This reverses normal thinking by starting with the desired outcome rather than current limitations.

2. The Resource Creation Matrix

Instead of working with existing resources, design ways to generate new ones.

How to apply it:

• Ask: "What if the resources I need don't exist yet but could be created?"
• Look for ways to transform abundant resources into scarce ones you need
• Design systems that generate rather than consume resources
• Find ways to create value that generates the resources you require
• Explore collaborative models that pool resources to create new capabilities
• Look for network effects where combined resources create exponentially more value
• Consider how to build the infrastructure needed to access unavailable resources

This shifts from scarcity thinking to abundance creation thinking.

3. The Future-Back Innovation Engine

Envision future possibilities and reverse-engineer pathways to reach them.

How to apply it:

• Project yourself 20-50 years into the future
• Imagine what becomes possible with continued technological and social evolution
• Describe in detail how problems are solved in this imagined future
• Identify the key innovations or breakthroughs that enabled these solutions
• Work backward to identify what would need to happen first
• Look for early signals of these future possibilities in current research or trends
• Create projects that accelerate progress toward these future capabilities

This approach accesses solutions that exist in potential but not yet in reality.

4. The Cross-Reality Borrower

Import solutions from different realities: other cultures, times, or even fictional worlds.

How to apply it:

• Study how other cultures solve problems differently than your own
• Research historical solutions that aren't used today but could be adapted
• Explore fictional solutions from science fiction, fantasy, or speculative design
• Ask: "What would an advanced alien civilization do with this challenge?"
• Look at how natural systems solve similar problems through evolution
• Consider solutions from dreams, art, or imaginative thinking
• Extract principles from impossible solutions and make them possible

This expands your solution space beyond current human experience.

5. The Constraint Transcendence Method

Design solutions that operate beyond current limiting factors.

How to apply it:

• Identify all constraints you're currently accepting as fixed
• For each constraint, ask: "What would eliminate this constraint entirely?"
• Design solutions that would work in constraint-free environments
• Look for ways to transcend rather than work within limitations
• Consider how emerging technologies might eliminate current constraints
• Explore operating in different domains where constraints don't apply
• Create new contexts where current constraints become irrelevant

This opens solution spaces that constraint-based thinking never accesses.

6. The Emergence Anticipator

Predict and design for capabilities that emerge from complex interactions.

How to apply it:

• Look for opportunities where combining existing elements creates new capabilities
• Study emergence in other systems: how complex behaviors arise from simple rules
• Ask: "What new properties might emerge if I connect A, B, and C?"
• Design interactions that could generate desired emergent properties
• Look for phase transitions where systems suddenly gain new capabilities
• Create conditions for beneficial emergence rather than trying to control outcomes
• Anticipate capabilities that don't exist in individual components but arise from combinations

Emergence often creates capabilities that exceed the sum of available parts.

7. The Paradigm Transcendence Framework

Think beyond current paradigms to access fundamentally different approaches.

How to apply it:

• Identify the fundamental assumptions or paradigms governing your domain
• Ask: "What would be possible under completely different assumptions?"
• Study paradigm shifts in other fields to understand how fundamental change occurs
• Look for anomalies that don't fit current paradigms
• Explore what becomes possible when foundational beliefs change
• Design solutions that would work under future paradigms
• Create experiences that help others see beyond current paradigm limitations

Paradigm shifts often make previously impossible solutions suddenly obvious.

8. The Synthesis Amplifier

Combine existing elements in ways that create capabilities beyond what's currently available.

How to apply it:

• Map all existing capabilities, technologies, and resources in your domain
• Look for unexpected combinations that haven't been tried
• Ask: "What becomes possible when I combine X, Y, and Z?"
• Explore synthesis across different domains, scales, and time horizons
• Look for synergies where combined elements create multiplicative rather than additive effects
• Design hybrid approaches that integrate the best of multiple existing solutions
• Create new categories by combining elements from different existing categories

Most breakthrough innovations are novel syntheses rather than entirely new inventions.

9. The Collective Intelligence Mobilizer

Access capabilities that exist in distributed form across many minds and systems.

How to apply it:

• Ask: "What becomes possible if I can coordinate multiple intelligences?"
• Design ways to aggregate knowledge, creativity, or capability from many sources
• Create platforms that enable collective problem-solving on your challenge
• Look for ways to coordinate distributed resources toward common goals
• Explore how to access the "wisdom of crowds" for your specific needs
• Design incentive systems that align individual contributions with collective objectives
• Create mechanisms for combining human and artificial intelligence

Collective intelligence often exceeds what any individual mind can conceive.

10. The Reality Extension Toolkit

Push the boundaries of what's considered "real" or "possible" in your context.

How to apply it:

• Question what you consider "realistic" and examine whether these boundaries are artificial
• Look for solutions that exist in adjacent possible spaces just beyond current reality
• Ask: "What's the most ambitious thing that's still technically possible?"
• Study people who consistently achieve what others consider impossible
• Design experiments that test the boundaries of current possibility
• Create prototypes of solutions that don't fully exist yet
• Build bridges between current reality and expanded possibilities

Reality often has more flexibility than we assume when we test its boundaries thoughtfully.

Integration Strategy

To think systematically beyond what's available:

1. Start with the Impossible Assumption Reverser to break initial mental barriers
2. Use the Future-Back Innovation Engine to envision expanded possibilities
3. Apply the Synthesis Amplifier to combine existing elements in new ways
4. Employ the Collective Intelligence Mobilizer to access distributed capabilities
5. Integrate multiple approaches for breakthrough thinking

Beyond-Available Indicators

You're successfully thinking beyond current availability when:

• Solutions you envision don't currently exist but feel achievable
• Others say your ideas are impossible but you see clear pathways
• You're creating new categories rather than competing in existing ones
• Your solutions require building new capabilities rather than just using existing ones
• You inspire others to expand their sense of what's possible

The Available-Beyond Paradox

The most profound solutions often combine elements that are technically available but haven't been connected, synthesized, or applied in the specific way needed. "Beyond what's available" doesn't always mean inventing new things—it often means seeing new possibilities in existing elements.

Remember that thinking beyond what's available isn't about fantasy thinking—it's about rigorously exploring the edges of possibility and finding ways to expand what's actually achievable.