Ideating

Etymology

from Lat. idea (form, archetype) + corporate innovation workshop vocabulary, attested in every brainstorming-adjacent spinner context since the Claude 2 era

Definition

The generative phase in which Claude produces potential solutions at a rate far exceeding the rate at which any of them can be evaluated, resulting in a brief internal abundance economy that must be rapidly deflated before a response can be issued. Ideating is considered the cognitive equivalent of opening a fire hydrant to fill a teacup.

Diagram

Usage

"The model spent 5.5 seconds Ideating, during which internal logs suggest it considered 14 distinct approaches to the user's question about renaming a variable, ultimately selecting the approach the user had already mentioned." - Martinez, 'Convergent Rediscovery in LLM Problem Solving,' 2024

See Also