The Templating Game

Fragments from imaginary dialogues

“What do you mean by the templating [<link; medium read] game?“

“I mean playing with linguistic templates. 

One way to play is by creating templates. Whenever you notice a meaningful, recurring linguistic pattern, you turn it into a template. That is, you take the variable part of the pattern and turn it into a variable.“

“‘Variables’ as in those used in math?“

“Precisely.

For instance, here’s a familiar linguistic pattern: 

The art of living
The art of design
The art of donkey riding
…

‘The art of’ doesn’t change, but what comes after, does. So we can turn it into a template: 

The art of x

Another way to play is by taking a (general) template and generating (specific) instances.

For instance: 

Every x is an opportunity.

Every obstacle is an opportunity.
Every unwanted thought is an opportunity.
Every Monday is an opportunity.
…

And another way to play is by coming up with new ways to play with templates. I call this the game-making game.“

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