Prompts, Introductions
An introduction limits what can happen next. A prompt expands it.
We treat introductions as neutral, even kind — a way of easing an encounter. But an introduction actually does pre-mediate. It creates furniture for conversation, an obstruction to people being themselves. Before you meet the person, you meet the description. Before you read the work, you’re told what kind of work it is. The terms arrive from a third party, and from that moment, the encounter runs on inherited framing. Introduction limits intersubjectivity, and intersubjectivity is creativity.
What looks like a connection is often two people relating to the same preformed description, agreeing on a frame neither of them made. The form of value you’ll operate in was fixed before either of you spoke.
What is never discussed is that a performed introduction will necessarily result in median work, because no one is being themselves, and creativity can only happen in embodiment.
A prompt gives without fixing terms. It marks a space, declines to issue a verdict on what belongs there, and expects nothing in return. It can’t tell you what to do; it invites you to think for yourself. That is the real generous act — not handing someone a frame, but handing them room to form one. An introduction gives you something finished, thereby closing the range of outcomes. A prompt gives you something unfinished, and the range of outcomes grows with whoever receives it.
Feel free to use these prompts from Creative Suplus when with people or use these printable ones for your next dinner club.