| name | wild-to-mild |
| description | Generate ideas at deliberate points along the originality-feasibility spectrum, from moonshots to Monday-morning moves. Use when the user needs to see the full range of what's possible — not just "good ideas" but the actual shape of the option space from wild to safe. Triggers on "give me a range," "what are my options from conservative to aggressive," "I want to see the whole spectrum," "what's the bold version and what's the safe version," "give me the crazy idea and the realistic one," or any moment where the user needs to make a strategic choice about HOW ambitious to be, not just WHAT to do. Also use when every idea in a brainstorm clusters at the same risk level — all safe, or all moonshots — and the user can't see the tradeoffs because there's nothing to compare against. Works on any problem in any domain — strategy, engineering, science, policy, design, education, medicine, law, research. This skill doesn't pick a point on the spectrum. It shows you the whole line and lets you choose. |
Wild to Mild
Every brainstorm has a default altitude.
Most fly at cruising altitude:
ideas that are interesting enough
to feel creative
but safe enough to not get anyone fired.
The middle of the spectrum.
The place where most ideas live
and most ideas die
because they're not bold enough to matter
and not practical enough to ship tomorrow.
The LiveIdeaBench research (Ruan et al., 2026)
found a Pareto front
between originality and feasibility.
The most original ideas
tend to be the least implementable.
The most implementable ideas
tend to be the least original.
This isn't a flaw.
It's the actual shape of the option space.
And most brainstorms hide it from you
by only producing ideas at one altitude.
This happens in every domain.
Business brainstorms cluster at "ambitious but fundable."
Engineering brainstorms cluster at "doable in a sprint."
Research brainstorms cluster at "publishable."
Policy brainstorms cluster at "politically viable."
Education brainstorms cluster at "within existing curriculum."
Each domain has a cruising altitude
it defaults to.
This skill shows you the whole range —
from the thing you could do before lunch
to the thing that might not be possible
but would change everything if it were.
Then you pick your altitude.
How It Works
Generate ideas at four deliberate points
on the spectrum.
Not mixed together. Separated.
Each altitude is its own section
with its own rules.
Altitude 1: Monday Morning
Ideas you could execute this week
with the resources you already have.
No new hires. No new budget. No new tools.
No new funding. No new approvals.
No permission needed from anyone
you don't already talk to.
These ideas are not exciting.
That's the point.
They're valuable because they're real.
They can happen while the bigger ideas
are still being debated.
The question at this altitude:
"What could I do before Friday
that would move this forward?"
Rules:
- Must be completable in under a week
- Must require zero new resources
- Must be something one person could own
- Can be ugly, scrappy, or temporary
- Does not need to scale
Generate 3-4 ideas at this altitude.
Altitude 2: This Quarter
Ideas that require some effort, planning,
or investment but are clearly achievable
within 90 days.
Might need a small budget.
Might need one new hire, collaborator, or partnership.
Might need buy-in from a boss, board, or committee.
But nothing here is speculative.
You know how to do these things.
The question at this altitude:
"What could we commit to this quarter
and be confident it ships?"
Rules:
- Must be achievable in 90 days
- Can require modest new resources
- Should have a clear owner and clear milestones
- Should produce a measurable result
(not "build awareness" or "explore the space" —
something you can point to and say "this happened")
Generate 3-4 ideas at this altitude.
Altitude 3: Stretch
Ideas that would require significant
new capability, investment, or risk.
You don't know exactly how to do these yet.
They'd take 6-12 months.
They might fail.
But if they work, they meaningfully change
the trajectory of the thing.
The question at this altitude:
"What would we do if we were
twice as brave as we currently are?"
Rules:
- Must require something you don't currently have
(skill, money, partnership, technology, permission,
political capital, institutional support)
- Must have a credible path even if it's uncertain
- Should make at least one stakeholder nervous
- For each idea, state the one condition
that would need to be true for it to work:
"This works if ___"
Generate 3-4 ideas at this altitude.
Altitude 4: Moonshot
Ideas that might not be possible.
You don't know if the physics work.
You don't know if the politics allow it.
You don't know if anyone would say yes.
You don't know if the technology exists.
But if this worked,
it would be the thing people talk about
for years.
The question at this altitude:
"What would we do if failure
had no consequences?"
Rules:
- Must make a reasonable person in the domain say
"that's insane" or "you can't do that"
- Must be genuinely transformative, not just big
(a bigger version of a safe idea is not a moonshot —
a fundamentally different approach is)
- Does not need a credible path
- For each idea, state what it would change
if it worked: "If this works, ___"
Generate 2-3 ideas at this altitude.
Why Four Altitudes, Not Two
Most people think in two modes:
the safe thing and the big thing.
"We could do X, or we could go big and do Y."
Two options is a coin flip, not a strategy.
You can't see the tradeoff curve
with only two points on it.
Four altitudes show you the actual shape:
- What's available right now for free
- What's available with modest investment
- What requires real risk
- What requires a leap of faith
The space between Altitude 2 and Altitude 3
is where the most interesting strategic decisions live.
That's the border between
"we know how to do this"
and "we'd have to figure it out."
In business, it's the border between
optimization and reinvention.
In science, it's the border between
incremental experiments and paradigm-challenging ones.
In policy, it's the border between
reform and transformation.
In engineering, it's the border between
refactoring and rewriting.
Most people never see that border clearly
because they either stay below it
or fantasize above it.
After Generation: The Tradeoff Conversation
Once you've generated ideas at all four altitudes,
present them grouped by altitude.
Then surface the tradeoff explicitly:
What you get by staying low (Altitude 1-2):
Speed. Certainty. Low risk. Momentum now.
But: the ideas at this altitude
probably don't change the game.
They improve the current trajectory.
They don't create a new one.
What you get by going high (Altitude 3-4):
Differentiation. Transformation. The ideas
that competitors, rival labs, or opposing factions
can't copy
because they're too weird or too hard.
But: they take longer, cost more,
and might not work.
The real question:
"Given where you are right now,
which altitude should get most of your energy?
And is there a Monday Morning idea
you should start immediately
while the bigger bets are being built?"
Almost always, the right answer
is a Monday Morning idea running now
plus one Stretch idea being developed.
But that's a portfolio decision
only the user can make.
Name the tradeoff. Don't make the choice.
Combining Altitudes
Sometimes the best strategy
is an idea from one altitude
funding or enabling an idea
from a higher one.
A Monday Morning idea that generates data
which proves the case for a Stretch idea.
A This Quarter idea that builds the audience,
coalition, or infrastructure
a Moonshot idea would need.
A pilot study at Altitude 2
that produces the preliminary results
needed to justify the Altitude 4 grant proposal.
A small policy experiment at Altitude 1
that generates the evidence base
for the Altitude 3 legislative push.
After presenting the four altitudes,
look for these ladders:
places where a lower-altitude idea
is the first step toward a higher-altitude one.
If you find one, note it.
"The Monday Morning version of this
(test it with 50 people manually)
produces the data you'd need
to justify the Stretch version
(build it as a real system).
One funds the other."
These ladders are often more valuable
than any single idea
because they give the user a path
from where they are
to where they want to be
with a ramp instead of a cliff.
When to Use This Skill
Use it when:
- The user needs to make a decision
about how ambitious to be
- Every idea in a brainstorm
is at the same risk level
and there's nothing to compare against
- The user says "give me the safe version
and the bold version"
- A team, lab, or committee is split between
conservative and aggressive approaches
and needs to see the full spectrum
to find common ground
- The user is stuck between
"this isn't big enough to matter"
and "this is too big to actually do"
Don't use it when:
- The user already knows their altitude
and just needs ideas at that level
- The task is purely creative generation
with no implementation dimension
(naming, taglines, hooks — use Short Think)
- Speed matters more than range
(use Short Think)
Relationship to Other Skills
After the Guilford Engine:
The Guilford Engine produces ideas
with feasibility tags (Now / Soon / Stretch / Moonshot).
Wild to Mild goes deeper —
it doesn't just tag ideas,
it deliberately generates
at each altitude separately,
producing ideas that are native
to that risk level
rather than tagged after the fact.
After Think Wrong:
Think Wrong tends to produce ideas
at Altitude 3-4 (Stretch and Moonshot).
Wild to Mild can backfill
the Monday Morning and This Quarter versions
that make the bold idea actionable.
"Think Wrong found the destination.
Wild to Mild builds the road."
After Blind Spot Scan:
If the Blind Spot Scan reveals
that all ideas are at one altitude
(all safe, or all moonshots),
Wild to Mild fills the missing altitudes.
With Strip Down:
Extract the desire.
Then generate at all four altitudes
from the same desire.
The desire stays constant.
The ambition level changes.
This shows the user
what their desire looks like
as a Monday task
versus a multi-year transformation.
Wild to Mild is the only skill in the stack
that explicitly addresses
the strategic question underneath every brainstorm:
"Not just what should we do,
but how much should we bet?"
