
In this case the card is trusted even if its appropriateness is quite unclear. They can be used as a pack, or by drawing a single card from the shuffled pack when a dilemma occurs in a working situation. Sometimes they were recognised in retrospect (intellect catching up with intuition), sometimes they were identified as they were happening, sometimes they were formulated. From the introduction to the 2001 edition: These cards evolved from separate observations of the principles underlying what we were doing.

The set went through three limited edition printings before Schmidt suddenly died in early 1980, after which the card decks became rather rare and expensive.


There was a significant overlap between the two projects, and so, in late 1974, Schmidt and Eno combined them into a single pack of cards and offered them for general sale. Eno, who had known Schmidt since the late 1960s, had been pursuing a similar project himself (which he had handwritten onto a number of bamboo cards and given the name 'Oblique Strategies' in 1974). Origin and history In 1970, created 'The Thoughts Behind the Thoughts', a box containing 55 sentences letterpress printed onto disused prints that accumulated in his studio, which is still in the possession of Eno.
