The Counter-Intuitive Truth About AI Ideation
More openness does not produce more original ideas from AI. It produces more average ideas -- the most commonly suggested approaches for the most general version of your prompt. The ideas that feel surprising and specific come from tight constraints that force Claude out of the most common response territory.
If you ask for restaurant recommendations with no context, you get the most popular restaurants. If you ask for restaurants that are not tourist traps, are under $30, have vegetarian options, and are near a specific neighborhood, you get something useful. The same principle applies to idea generation.
The three constraints that consistently produce original ideas: exclude what is already common, specify the exact audience, and challenge one assumption. Use all three in the same prompt.
How to Apply All Three
Exclude what is already done: In your space, what content types and angles are oversaturated? List them and ask Claude to exclude them entirely. "Not productivity tips, not tool roundups, not beginner tutorials" creates the space where original ideas live.
Specify the exact audience: Not a demographic -- one specific person with specific beliefs and frustrations. The more specific the person, the more specific the ideas Claude generates for them.
Challenge one assumption: Identify one thing everyone in your space takes for granted and ask Claude to generate ideas that challenge it. Contrarian ideas are almost always original by definition.