Problem solved by: Thinking Outside the Box :)

Blocked///

So I'm sure many of you have felt like I do right about now. Kinda like driving your car at 60 mph in first gear... How long will it take before the engine blows..? Well, I guess I'm pretty blocked at the moment. My box is closed, sealed, stapled shut.
Any bright idea's to flip the flap?

Discovering Your Box

In many ways society has indoctrinated people to conform and fit into a mould. Fit into a box. However, people cannot seem to fit into that mould, therefore creating deficient and defected individuals who feel inadequate and insecure. Making them unable to discover their own box.

An individual is unique. Uniqueness is discovered by exploration and expression and yes, creativity. But creativity in a way where you choose it to be most effective. What makes you unique?
 It could be that being creative and unique for you, is to wear different clothes to express yourself, or writing poetry to reveal your most personal emotions, maybe impulsive actions are your creative outbursts, painting your face with wacky colours, even taking your dog for a relaxing walk in the woods could be just enough creativity for you. Your box can be as big or as small or as colourful as you want it to appear to be. You make the creation based on whatever you have discovered works for you. Since you choose what is most effective to crafting your box, you are open to experiencing new perspectives and growth. You realize that you have the ability, or have the ability to acquire the ability to expose yourself, by thinking outside the box in which you have created.

So, I challenge you. Create your box. Mould it onto your own. Then, step out of your comfort zone and go beyond the barriers. This is your box, your barriers, your discovery...

YOUR box...???

Do you think you have unlimited imagination? Do you think your box is awesome? :) 

Well, supposedly, us humans only use a small fraction of our brains. Most of you are probably already aware of this...but is it true??? Do we really use just a part of our smartest organ, and if so, are we able to use the remaining amount? The rather enticing aspect to this statement, is that if we use, say the other 90% of our brains, we may have extraordinary powers! It's a mystical thought... Abra Cadabra anyone? 

What do you think?
If it's true, imagine thinking outside your box then!

P.S: Another answer for the 9 dots puzzle - I never said how thick the pencil had to be ;) 

Just another cliche?

We learn to think of our ideas inside the box. Then we are taught to think outside the box. The question is, who put the box there? 

'The box' could be the normal way of looking at things. To think out of the box is to challenge the assumptions inside the box, yet identifying assumptions and challenging those assumptions can be challenging. That creates a pretty big challenge... 

Take a look at this well known puzzle. There are nine dots, can you draw four straight lines through all of the dots without lifting your pencil from the paper? If you are not familiar with the puzzle, before scrolling down, try it. Give yourself some time and see what you come up with.   

If you solved it, give yourself a pat on the back. If not, here's a tip: Go beyond the barriers of the box.

Try it before looking!

                                                                      ANSWER 1:

                                                                       

                                                                    


                                                                        ANSWER 2:

How did you find that? Did it make a difference after I said you could go outside the box? 

MY INTERPRETATION:

The whole idea behind this puzzle is that we can't solve the problem by thinking 'inside the box' using our assumptions. The people who see the answers are often shocked and surprised, usually they say 'but you didn't say we could draw outside the box'. Which would be responded by 'Ah, but I didn't say you couldn't draw outside the box either!' When we begin to think 'outside the box' we open up new ideas and it becomes easy to solve the problem. In life, we often get trapped in the constant cycle of things and become creatures of habit, we get busy. It is an effort to challenge our assumptions and think outside the box, a lot of people find it very difficult and time consuming.

But what i want to ask is, is thinking outside the box really a way to make you achieve those fantastic creative solutions? It's kind of saying that if you just think out the box, it will be easy to solve a problem.

There are a few experiments which have been undertaken by Robert Weisberg in which people were told that they have to solve a problem and were given the instructions to draw outside the box. This should have made the problem easier to solve, right? Only 20-25% of subjects were able to solve the problem, and they took quite some time to solve it with a lot of trial and error, rather than newfound creative thinking.

Thinking outside the box’ makes the creative process of idea’s daunting, to me anyway. I feel as if i have to think outside the box in which everybody else places their ides. That’s a pretty large box… It’s overwhelming! Adding to the box that pretty much everything has been done… So maybe the catch phrase should change to 'Thinking outside your box'?

Maybe I'm looking at it wrong... perhaps the 'box' is people's inability to do anything outside of what they have done in the past, what they are used to. Maybe they do live in a box...

A great quote from Mark McGuinness "Creativity is actually WORK. I do like to leave 1% for the magic to happen" 


Einstein said that he wasn't smarter than anyone else, he was just more persistent. (Although he was pretty smart) 

What do u think? Is "Thinking outside the box" one of the biggest cliches in the creative business or is it a very useful tool in creativity?

Help me decide.

PS: Can you come up with any other answers to the puzzle? Thinking outside your box ;)