Think Inside the Box.
Thinking outside the box is so overrated. What is the box and how do we think inside it? Or outside it, for that matter?
This topic has been boggling my mind for as long as I can remember. I did some research over the years to find the origins of the term, though.
I guess we will never truly know the origins of such a phrase because it is so ingrained in the mesh of the global culture now that it has become normalised, but there are some ideas. The most significant being that it may have started by management consultants in the 1970s and 1980s to refer to the nine dots puzzle. To those of you unfamiliar with the nine dots puzzle. the objective of the puzzle is to connect all nine dots together by drawing only four connected lines without removing the pen off the paper. At first, it may seem simple, but then the complexity of the undertaking becomes apparent to those who create a mental “box” for themselves.
There are so many solutions to the problem, but they all involve getting rid of the theoretical, mental box that bounds the nine dots. Two such solutions are illustrated below, but there are many others that you can think of.
Others, however, think of the box as your skull. And by “thinking outside the box”, they are metaphorically encouraging you to think outside your head by drawing inspiration from other places they are beyond you. This sounds like an interesting explanation to me. In some of the creative thinking workshops I was conducting, I got some colouring books and encouraged participants to literally colour outside the lines. It is not an easy pursuit for most adults, simply because these lines are like boundaries inside our heads. As we teach our minds to unsee these lines, we become more free, and we allow ourselves to overcome the mental boundaries that some of us place as frameworks for our ideas.
On the other hand, though, creativity comes from limitations. Think of a box with a certain number of molecules in it. If these molecules had been placed in a large room, they rarely hit the walls of the room. When they are placed in a box, they hit the walls successfully more frequently. If the box is smaller, they are even more likely to hit the walls. This happens in dance, where dancers are challenged to create their best movements within a confined space. Same for paintings, whereby the painter can paint inside and outside their canvas, but the confinement of the space is what actually matters.
However, there are times when thinking outside the box becomes to overrated, and thinking inside the box is what truly matters. It’s great to draw inspiration from the outside world. It’s great to get inspired by everything around us. But, more often than not, this becomes distracting. And it’s difficult to create because of the overstimulation and over-inspiration. Sometimes it becomes super useful to take all the ideas you possibly have and to sit with them; to create a box for yourself where you can really create and innovate without any extra factors and ideas coming in as distractions.
With the COVID-19 lockdowns and quarantines, this may be useful for exactly that reason. This is a chance to take a step back and avoid all distractions as you work on creating on your own. This is a chance to be inside a box that may mean the confinement of your home or your room or studio and to really achieve more successful hits when you’re out of this situation.
If the box is actually your mind, then with all the social media, all the traveling, and all the other things you’ve done, it is time to really contribute to the world by creating something that is uniquely yours; coming from inside your box the most. Sometimes it’s useful not to get any feedback - that may be destructive and downing at times - and to follow your own vision to create things that you like. To embrace your failures as you go through your own unique process and to come out on the other side after all your experimentations with something you would like to show the world. Besides, the phrase “think outside the box” is so overused that it has become uncreative, and truly more inside the box than outside it as a phrase.
A few years ago, I read a book by the famous New York based dancer, Twyla Tharp, called “The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use it For Life”. In the book, she makes a number of very interesting analogies to creativity and creative thinking by referencing what she knows the most: dance. One such idea that hit me hard (because, ironically, I’m still in the “research phase” of my book, too) is expressed in this quote:
“Sadly, some people never get beyond the box stage in their creative life. We all know people who have announced that they’ve started work on a project— say, a book— but some time passes, and when you politely ask how it’s going, they tell you that they’re still researching. Weeks, months, years pass and they produce nothing. They have tons of research but it’s never enough to nudge them toward the actual process of writing the book.”
I have also found that talking too much about an idea you have before working on it gives you a fake sense of satisfaction as if you’ve already done it. You get the extrinsic happiness fix as people love your idea and tell you how brilliant they think you are, so your brain tricks you into thinking you’ve already done something by simply talking about doing it. Don’t fall into this trap!
The box may well be your own mental framework that you want to create within. And in order to create, it is useful to act within that. If you had told me this when I was younger, I would have argued so much. I was always an advocate for conceiving crazy ideas and being as free as possible. But as I matured, I realised that the best undertakings are the ones that are well thought-out and those that have a strong personality that is unique to their creator.
While being inspired from outside the box may be magical, the real enchantment happens when you take all these ideas, mix them together, and create something that is uniquely your own - inside the box.