DIY psychology hack #1: How to open your mind to insanity.
Not really a techno-hack, but seeing that this involves hacking the brain, I thought I'd post it.

Years ago when I was a computer-obsessed teenager, I had this idea - just how much could I hack the English language to make myself enjoy literature a bit more.

I created this program that worked like a reverse Mad Libs. That is, you fed it a template and it would fill in the words for you. As the choice of words was completely random, this would often cause the output to be firmly in the domain of the surreal.

I found that exposing myself to randomly generated spontaneous juxtapositions did train my mind to either grab insights out of nowhere, cultivate a fertile imagination, or to at least enjoy an appreciation for the bizarre.

Here is an example.

Needless to say, exposing myself to stuff like this every day for a period of six months does have an effect on you and might have helped me along the path to becoming the loon that I am today.

Length? Vivaciously dropped.
( mistaspakkaman and the inedible shifting caterpillars, Tue 25 Aug 2009, 9:14, 2 replies)

Oh, how ruthlessly absurd.
(mark schmark, Tue 25 Aug 2009, 9:40, closed)

I particularly liked "Roast the quiet watermelon - for I have tippexed the whale!"
(Pope Jamiroquai III, Tue 25 Aug 2009, 22:59, closed)