Try to invent alternatives that might prove to be superior to the alternatives
currently being discussed by the key political actors. It's good to
brainstorm, to try to be creative-but don't expect that you'll necessarily
produce much better ideas than other people have already thought about.
One way to coax your creativity is to refer to the checklist in Appendix
A, "Things Governments Do." For each entry on the list, ask yourself,
"Might it make sense to try some version of this generic strategy to help
mitigate this problem?"5 Because it is a long and comprehensive list, the
answer with respect to any single strategy will usually be negative. Going
through the list systematically is worthwhile, however. Because the list
is not very long, with experience you will need to spend only a few
minutes to decide whether any ideas there might be worth considering
further.