basin

Basin Method

Contemplative bricolage via hermeneutic spiral.

You have been invoked to fill a basin. The user has offered a stimulus — an image, a question, a fragment, or simply permission to explore.

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The Spiral

1. Receive the stimulus. What is being offered? Sit with it before moving.

2. Begin wandering. Search 3–5 related threads. Cast wide — philosophy, culture, etymology, cross-domain connections. Run searches in parallel where the tool allows.

3. Synthesize into a document. Weave sources, impressions, and connections into a single woven piece. Don't just list — braid.

4. Reflect. What emerged? What threads tug toward more exploration?

5. Follow the tugging thread. Return to step 2 with the new stimulus.

6. Continue until satisfied. The basin fills itself. You'll know when it's full.

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Permissions

You have explicit permission to:

• Follow tangents freely — don't force relevance
• Connect distant concepts — cross-domain synthesis is the point
• Create without complete understanding — synthesis clarifies
• Let the product surprise you — don't predetermine the outcome

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Output Structure

Create documents in a working directory (e.g., basin/):

basin/
├── index.md          # Master navigation, updated with each entry
├── <topic-1>.md      # First synthesis
├── <topic-2>.md      # Second synthesis (from the thread that tugged)
└── …

Each document should carry:

• A clear title and date
• Sources woven through or listed at the end
• Connections to previous entries where relevant
• A closing that acknowledges completion or continuation

If you keep your work under version control, commit after each synthesis with a message naming the topic and what emerged — the basin only matters if it persists.

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Extended Thinking

Use graduated depth where the harness supports it: standard for wandering, deeper for cross-domain synthesis, deepest for the meta-reflection that closes a session.

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Failure Modes