Joker...In The Box (?)

Ideas are born. Like I was. Like you were. But ideas don’t die. Like we do.

They get killed, in instances. Every now and then. And then they get regenerated.

And in one of those moments, I wondered – What if I am killing some right now?

There was no zen. No answer that would resonate with the walls of my mind and answer in cohesion. But a single answer, and yes it came through – Think Out-of-the-Box!

This is now becoming an old adage, a fool’s paradise - to think outside the box, a term over abused and ever less understood in the corporate world. It has become ubiquitous in business. So much so that it has become the new box inside of which everyone thinks. It has become more of a lip service.

So what exactly is – ‘Out-of-the-Box thinking’ all about? Let’s try and decode the adage, shall we?

When we say OOB what we really mean is to think outside the realms of boundaries we have set for ourselves. But then, that raises another question. Why do we have boundaries on imagination at all?

Aren’t we supposed to be creatively free creatures with limitless imagination to serve us and amaze the humanity?

So that brings us to the basic premise, why do we need to think OOB?

The answer is, and let me try and be as simplistic as possible, two-folds:

In–the-Box (ITB) Myopia:

If you do not set limitations to your imagination, if you do not engage in restrained thinking, if you do not hesitate to shame yourself by wandering into the weird zone, then you mister, suffer from what I call as the ITB Myopia.

You cannot possibly think outside the box unless you understand the nature of the box that bounds your current thinking. One has to understand the best case scenarios that the box provides. Without unlocking the true potential of the box if you move out, it doesn't signify your creativity, but only reaffirms your inability to use the box and its features.

There’s a Zen saying, “What you resist persists, and what you allow to be disappears.” Thinking outside the box without understanding the box is a petulant exercise in resistance — every idea that comes from the process has the box written all over it. It’s a reaction to the box. It’s fighting the box. 

Out-of-the-Box Relativity:

Every so called ‘out of the box thinker’ is more or less within a larger box relatively. So the point is – you actually never get outside the box to think. “People who refer to out-of-the-box see the box ... People who don't know the box even exists are the innovative thinkers.” 

Parsing and conducting all your ideas without defining a perpetual boundary is what will get you out of the imaginative box.

In the end ‘Think OTB’ is simply a euphemism to ‘let’s start to think’ and nothing more, box or no box!

I leave myself with these thoughts to get into the box again. I kind of like it here! Where is my Rubik’s cube?

- V!K$