Quote:
Originally Posted by Little Bang
I’m going to tell an elaborate fictional story to explain why few people can ( THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX).
You and I are very good friends and you are one of my employees. I own hundreds of corporations. You work with me in the main office of my vast empire. Every work day I come by your house ( located somewhere in the US ) out in the country and you drive me to the office. Almost every Sunday afternoon we have a get together with friends at your house and play poker. I spend the night in your guest room on Sunday nights because it is usually late when we break up the game.
The next morning we get dressed, have breakfast then go out to your car and head to work. As your driving along I ask,” Why are you driving on the wrong side of the road? “ You respond, “ I don’t understand, I’m driving on the right side of the road. “ I reply, “ Your on the right side of the road but your supposed to be driving on the left. “
At this point everything in your brain tells you that I’ve lost my mind. You can’t envision any scenario that would allow you to be wrong and me to be right. Unbeknownst to you six months earlier I hired a company to buy a piece of land in Europe and reproduce everything about you home and the landscape around it. The night of the poker game I slipped you a mickey just before you went to bed, loaded you on a jet and flew you to the duplicate home in Europe.
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I just found this while I was looking for something else. This is not an example of inability to think outside the box. The subject is still inside the box, the manufactured lndscape--the innards of the box. I think most people would say that "thinking outside the box" means being prepared for situations that challenge preconcieved notions. The situation presented here does not challenge those notions. It is only the Evil Genius of the story who challenges the notion that it is safe to drive down the same road in the same way one always has. (Although I have to admit that I might be tempted to drive on the other side once in a while out of boredom, and have done so on rural roads.)
The box is still firmly intact for the subject. Absent traffic (which would be unlikely in this artificial landscape) there is no reason to change behavior. Thinking outside this particular box would need to begin once the subject really
is outside the box and encounters obstacles--such as oncoming traffic. That is when the need for such thinking begins, when there are obstacles.
--lemit
