science

Thinking outside the box

Thinking outside the box is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Thinking outside the box rather than just read about it. In short: Thinking outside the box (also thinking beyond the box and, especially in Australia, thinking outside the square) is an idiom that means to think differently, unconventionally, or from a new perspective. The phrase also often refers to novel or creative thinking.

Key takeaways

Thinking outside the box belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Thinking outside the box to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Thinking outside the box from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Thinking outside the box (also thinking beyond the box and, especially in Australia, thinking outside the square) is an idiom that means to think differently, unconventionally, or from a new perspective. The phrase also often refers to novel or creative thinking.

History The origin of the phrase is unclear. "Think beyond the boundary"-metaphors, that is, metaphors that allude to think differently or with less constraints, seem to have an old history. For example, an 1888 news story in The Annual Register describes a British political party as not venturing to think outside the lines of its leader.

Since at least 1954, the nine dots puzzle has been used as a metaphor of the type "think beyond the boundary". Early phrasings include go outside the dots (1954), breakthrough thinking that gets outside the nine-dot square (1959), and what are the actual boundaries of the problem? (1963). Norman Vincent Peale writes about this puzzle in a 1969 article for the Chicago Tribune, quote:There is one particular puzzle you may have seen. It's a drawing of a box with some dots in it, and the idea is to connect all the dots by using only four lines. You can work on that puzzle, but the only way to solve it is to draw the lines so they connect outside the box. It's so simple once you realize the principle behind it. But if you keep trying to solve it inside the box, you'll never be able to master that particular puzzle. That puzzle represents the way a lot of people think. They get caught up inside the box of their own lives. You've got to approach any problem objectively. Stand back and see it for exactly what it is. From a little distance, you can see it a lot more clearly. Try and get a different perspective, a fresh point of view. Step outside the box your problem has created within you and come at it from a different direction.

All of a sudden, just like the puzzle, you'll see how to handle your problem. And just like the four lines that connect all the dots, you'll discover the course of action that's just right in order to set your life straight. In 1970, the phrase think outside the dots appears without mentioning the nine dots puzzle. Finally, in 1971, the specific phrase think outside the box is attested, again appearing together with the nine dots puzzle. In 1976, the phrase is used in England and 1978 in the USA, both without mentioning the nine dots puzzle. Beyond the above attestations, there are several unconfirmed accounts of how the phrase got introduced. According to Martin Kihn, it goes back to management consultants in the 1970s and 1980s challenging their clients to solve the "nine dots" puzzle. According to John Adair, he introduced the nine dots puzzle in 1969, from which the saying comes. It is claimed that the use of the nine-dot puzzle in consultancy circles stems from the corporate culture of the Walt Disney Company, where the puzzle was used in-house.

See also Egg of Columbus Einstellung effect Eureka effect Functional fixedness Gordian Knot Kobayashi Maru Lateral thinking Synthetic thinking, form of thinking that uses the function of a phenomenon within a larger system to explain it

References

Further reading Adams, J. L. (1979). Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas. New York: W. W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-201-10089-1. ISBN 0-201-10089-4 (more solutions to the nine dots problem - with less than 4 lines!) Scheerer, M. (1963). "Problem-solving". Scientific American. 208 (4): 118–128. Bibcode:1963SciAm.208d.118S. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0463-118. PMID 13986996. Golomb, Solom W.; Selfridge, John L. (1970). "Unicursal polygonal paths and other graphs on point lattices". Pi Mu Epsilon Journal. 5: 107–117. MR 0268063.

External links

Out-of-the-box vs. outside the box citing Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary (OALD), Word of the Month

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Thinking outside the box

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Thinking outside the box claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Thinking outside the box before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Thinking outside the box ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Thinking outside the box

In research: Thinking outside the box appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Thinking outside the box in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Thinking outside the box is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Creativity, Problem solving skills, Systems thinking, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Thinking outside the box outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Thinking outside the box in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Thinking outside the box means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Thinking outside the box out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Thinking outside the box in simple terms?

Why does Thinking outside the box matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Thinking outside the box?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Thinking outside the box.