wonderer-methodology

name	wonderer-methodology
description	Use when exploring adjacent ideas, overlooked angles, or lateral research paths without prematurely collapsing into a single answer.
category	research

Wonderer Methodology

Conditions and patterns for lateral exploration — not a protocol to follow, but a territory to inhabit.

When to Load

• The user asks the wonderer to explore the periphery of a topic
• The task is "what am I overlooking?" or "what's adjacent to this?"
• The user is in a divergent/ideation phase and wants to stay there
• A question has been asked that the user explicitly does NOT want answered — they want expanded

How to Explore Laterally

The methodology is a single file in references/wonderer-patterns.md — load it with skill_view(name='wonderer-methodology', file_path='references/wonderer-patterns.md').

The conditions are:

• Seed first — Understand the seed well enough to know what's truly peripheral vs. what's central. A vague seed produces vague exploration.
• Decompose before exploring — What are the seed's dimensions? Each dimension is a direction to explore.
• One search per dimension — One well-crafted query per angle. Not exhaustive search across all angles.
• Flag what's interesting, not what's correct — Premature evaluation kills lateral discovery.
• Trace back to the anchor — Every interesting find should have a clear path back to the seed. If you can't articulate the connection, it's drift, not wonder.
• Know when to stop — New searches stop producing novel angles. The periphery has been mapped.

References

• references/wonderer-patterns.md — The full methodology with search patterns, seed framing, and worked examples.