10 Core Principles for Human Creative Thinking and Problem Solving (Explicit Rule Order)

By applying the core principles of AI prompt engineering techniques to human thought processes, I propose 10 core principles and ordered execution rules to improve more systematic and effective creative thinking and problem-solving abilities.

Principle 1: Core Intuition Access (↔ Zero Shot)

• Principle: Focus on the essence of the problem and attempt initial thinking based on intuition and basic knowledge without prior information or examples.
• Rules:
  1. Clearly define the core of the task or question to be solved.
  2. Immediately conceive a first idea or solution draft based on your own understanding without external references.

Principle 2: Case-Based Concretization (↔ Few Shot)

• Principle: Set the direction of thinking and clarify the criteria for results by referencing highly relevant specific cases.
• Rules:
  1. When facing unclear or new types of problems, find 1-3 successful past cases, similar problem-solving experiences, or explanatory examples.
  2. Analyze the found cases to identify applicable patterns, principles, or the form of desired results.
  3. Reflect the identified content in the current thinking process to concretize direction.

Principle 3: Perspective and Context Setting (↔ System, Context, Role Prompting)

• Principle: Intentionally set and consider goals, environment, and appropriate perspectives to clarify the thinking framework.
• Rules:
  1. (Goal Definition - System): Define the final goal to achieve, constraints, and basic principles.
  2. (Context Analysis - Context): Identify and analyze relevant background information, current situation, stakeholders, available resources, etc.
  3. (Perspective Adoption - Role): Set a specific role such as expert, user, critic, and analyze problems and generate ideas from that perspective. (“If I were [role]…”)

Principle 4: Higher-Level Principle Priority Exploration (↔ Step-Back)

• Principle: Before getting lost in details, first explore the root cause of the problem or broader context and core principles.
• Rules:
  1. Temporarily stop seeking specific solutions and step back.
  2. Ask higher-level questions such as “What is the root cause of this problem?”, “What are we truly trying to achieve?”, “What are the related universal principles?”
  3. Set detailed approach directions based on answers to those questions.

Principle 5: Stepwise Thinking Clarification (↔ Chain of Thought - CoT)

• Principle: Decompose complex reasoning processes into logical steps and proceed while clearly recognizing each step.
• Rules:
  1. Divide the problem-solving or decision-making process into logical steps from start to conclusion.
  2. Explicitly record or visualize (writing, mind map, etc.) the assumptions, analysis content, and intermediate conclusions of each step.
  3. Follow the flow of thought, verify the validity of each step, and track the overall logic.

Principle 6: Securing Consistency Through Repeated Review (↔ Self-Consistency)

• Principle: Verify the stability and reliability of conclusions through repeated thinking under various conditions or at different times.
• Rules:
  1. Think or conceive solutions independently several times for the same problem (e.g., on different days, in different moods, under different initial assumptions).
  2. Compare results derived from multiple attempts.
  3. Consider conclusions or ideas that consistently appear as the most reliable results and adopt them.

Principle 7: Multi-Path Exploration and Evaluation (↔ Tree of Thought - ToT)

• Principle: Without being tied to a single solution path, simultaneously explore and comparatively evaluate multiple possible alternative approaches or ideas.
• Rules:
  1. Intentionally generate and develop multiple potential solutions or idea paths (at least 2-3) for the problem.
  2. Systematically compare, analyze, and evaluate the pros, cons, expected results, feasibility, etc. of each path.
  3. Based on the evaluation results, select the optimal path or integrate the advantages of multiple paths to derive a final plan.

Principle 8: Thinking-Execution-Reflection Cycle (↔ ReAct)

• Principle: Organically connect and repeat thinking with specific actions (information gathering, experiments, etc.) and reflection on the results to gradually develop solutions.
• Rules:
  1. (Thinking): Formulate hypotheses or conceive initial plans.
  2. (Execution): Execute actions such as searching for information or simple tests or prototyping to verify or concretize plans.
  3. (Reflection and Re-thinking): Analyze execution results, update understanding, and modify or improve the next action plan.
  4. Repeat steps 1-3 until goal achievement or satisfactory results.

Principle 9: Multi-Modal Information Integration (↔ Multi-Modal)

• Principle: Utilize not only text but various forms of information such as visual and auditory to deepen understanding of problems and seek creative solutions.
• Rules:
  1. When expressing and exploring problems or ideas, intentionally utilize various information modalities and senses beyond writing, such as drawing, making diagrams, explaining out loud, referencing related images/videos, making models, etc.
  2. Synthesize information and insights from multiple modalities to build a richer and more three-dimensional understanding of the problem.

Principle 10: Thinking Process Optimization (↔ Meta-Cognitive Aspect of Automatic Prompt Engineering)

• Principle: Reflect on the problem-solving process itself, learn and apply more effective thinking strategies to continuously improve one’s thinking ability.
• Rules:
  1. After solving a specific problem, evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the thinking process applied (principles used, approach methods, etc.). (“What was effective?”, “What can be improved?”)
  2. Consciously develop the ability to select and combine more suitable thinking principles (1-9) according to problem type and situation.
  3. Continue efforts to improve the starting point of thinking, such as exploring ways to raise the quality of questions or redefine problems.