In the article about mini-Essays I wrote about "Lateral thinking" as a method of making an idea into a solid shaped artifact. I did not mention how and why this could be done. Obviously there is more to tell about this so called "Thinking Outside the Box". Although not specifically mentioned in many of the articles in this blog, the tools of lateral thinking were used. It is time to think outside the box about "Thinking outside the box".
Story of the Diamond and the Minister who thinks outside the box.
Once upon a time there lived a mighty King. And he had a wise set of ministers. One day the king's guards noticed some glistnening thing in the pond, in the Palace's garden. They immediately informed the king. And king, came to see and there it was, something glistening in the pond, some said it was just the Sun, some said it was a valuable gem. And the king asked the swimmers to dive in the water and bring whatever that is. The divers went in and came back empty handed. Once they were out of the water the glistening was still there. Then the king summoned the ministers and asked them what this could be. They had different openinons and discussed with themselves and asked the king to empty the pond.
So the king's guards emptied the pond. It took them half a day. Obviously neither eletricity nor water pumps were built during those old ages. Again, they found nothing. They even washed the mud that was in the bottom of the pond. But next day once the pond was filled again, there the glistening thing appeared again. The king this time little bit irritated summoned his wisest of the Ministers who happened to be on a Vacation! (Maybe he was just chilling in a nearby costal town) He came and walked around the pond and with a smile spoke to the king.
"My dear King! protector of our kingdom, with great plesure I can assure you what is glistening in the pond is infact a diamond. A valuable one indeed." And the Everyone including the king were keen and happy hearing this. And he continued. "The diamond is not in the pond. It is in the crow's nest on that tall tree. All you have to do is get a man to climb the tree and get it." And the king praised the wise minister for his remarkable ability of "Lateral thinking".
What is lateral thinking? - Definition.
Lateral thinking or thinking outside the box is, a creative approach to solving problems. Above is a classic example of thinking outside the box. As some questions are better answered with a novel apporach than traditional systematic approaches. Gordians Knot example from Greek legend is another similar example. Here a knot tied in oxcart was considered unsolvable and When challanged to untie it Alexander the Great in Gordiam in Phrygia, simply cut it with his sword. The term "Lateral thinking" however was used by the Maltease Psyhologist Edward de Bono, giving "nine dot puzzle" and "Judgement of solaman" as examples to lateral thinking. However, some consider this as a pseudo scientific concept. So, as to why, which I will discuss at the end of the article.
How to do lateral thinking? with Examples
Here, I will give you some tools of lateral thinking with examples appropriately. Further I will point out to some sources of articles which helps to improve creativity in this blog itself. As philosophy is a language of the mind, there is enough examples I can give.
Using randomness to generate ideas.
Randomness is very common. It is a fundamental aspect of human life, as I have argued in the random walk for life. Imagine you are watching Youtube. And they give you random ideas. If you are mindful about what you are watching, you will see while watching these random ideas you just develop thoughts about them as well. You just have to select out these ideas to solve your problems. Look at this post which I wrote some time ago, about Upside down world. I connected the concept provided by a random youtube song to generate a method to look at the world in a creative way, which is Upside Down! and it seem artists have been using this for ages, by trying to draw an image upside down.
You can choose a random word from the dictionary, a random quote, or a random concept from your textbook to start some creative learning and do some lateral thinking.
Movement techniques.
This is basically thinking about alternatives. As many as possible. It can be something like a brainstorming session. Positives, negatives and all the stupid things can be written on the board. Related to the problem, not related to the problem it doesn't matter. Once you have done that you will start to look for any connections. Do some more thinking about each of the alternatives. Often I do this when I write some article. I think about all the alternatives until everything is exhausted. Then, most of the time the obvious solutions will be apperent, Even if it does not, it can lift the understanding a little more higher.
Where is my collarbone is a good example. When someone asked a question what is the bone shown in the photo, after pointing to a shoulder of a person, I thought about all the possible answers someone can give. Maybe not everything but I covered most of it. And at the end of it I think it came up to a nice little article with some mindfulness wisdom in it.
Provocation Idea generation.
This means, either thinking about impossible, bizzar or even imaginary answers. Later this can be used to identify possible solutions to the problem. Provocative statement is something which generally considered false or wrong.
In the article Why I cannot see an elephant in a pen? I just asked the question can I see an elephant in a pen? What if I can? Is there a way there is an elephant in a pen? Then I argued that even a pen can harbour some atoms which have come from an elephant. Maybe the pen is engraved with some tiny elephant pattern and I can see an elephant. Isn't it bizzar, impossible and challange the so colled "Truth" that we all agree about a pen?
Challange.
Challange is to ask the question "why" in a non threatining way. Until you get to the bottom of the problem or the root cause. Here in this article I have written about Why we should start with why. Even if you do not follow any of the above or other methods, if you start to ask the question why often and even stupidly, I would say you are just a lateral thinker. Do you know who else does this as often? Toddlers! they ask endless why's throughout the day until as adults we even find oursleves searching google for answers. In the above article I give example of questioning why the sky is blue?
Fractionating.
As the name suggests, it is trying to break down the problem into its several root problems. Ishikawa diagram or fishbone chart is also a way of doing the same, in bottleneck problems. Often used in co-operate setup to identify multiple causes so as to why there is a bottleneck in the production line. Here, in this technique causes of the problem are analysed going backward and branching out as necessary, like a fish bone. Sometimes a large problem can be broken into smaller problems to solve each separtely.
Concept formation
Opposte to the fractionating is looking at the "big Picture". The technique is concept formation. Looking at everything at once to identify principles and concepts. Good example is Higher order thinking in Blooms taxonomy of learning. Or even for that matter pattern recognition. Where everything is considered to make mind map, to see not only the connections of ideas but to grade their relative importance. This allows greater understanding of the subject and there interconnectedness. As you can see this blog is one such giant map. Connecting everything from mindfulness to even Quicksilver or John wick.
Disproving.
Technically speaking disproving is to talk about the opposite of the solution and trying to disprove it. And in the process you might find that this even become impossible. In the article 3n+1, I have discussed how mathamaticians use disproving technique as an alternative to proving some solution to the problem. And both can lead to possible answers to the solution. And as for the problems of solving philosophy, I have even explored the third option of questioning the question as another method of finding solutions to problems. Which is inherently not an option for mathematicians as they are bounded by the rules of true and false.
Theories about Lateral thinking.
The best explanation to lateral thinking I found was by Barbara Okleys principle of diffuse mode of thinking. There in this concept she suggests some problems are inherently need some creative inputs to be successfully solved. And this creative ability is provided by not focussed concentration but diffuse mode of thinking. Where the ideas tend to work in the subconsciouss mind when you are relaxed, and patterns which comes from other domains of a persons knowledge get together to give an answer almost in a Eureka moment. (As it occured to Archimides -the Greek mathematician did run without his cloths shouting Eureka, once the brilliant idea came in his mind which ultimately lead to innovation of concept of specific gravity. Apperently he was having a Bath when this idea came to his mind once he saw the displacement of water out of the pool. ) So, lateral thinking does even happen when we are not even thinking about it.
As you can see above list of methods of lateral thinking is not exhaustive by itself. And I can clearly see some of them overlap with each other without clear boundries. Even writing a mini essay as I suggested previously can lead to some lateral thinking and may use all of the above processes in a single problem.
So, where does the mindfulness fit in the equation? I think being mindful help to observe the natural enviornment and these in turn can make the lateral thinking more easier when it matters. Hence, I suggest you to practice it daily and I have tonns of matter on how to.
Lateral thinking on Lateral thinking.
I can leave it there. As the conclusion of the article. However, the article would not be complete if I do not do a little lateral thinking about lateral thinking itself.😀 Hence, this is some philosophical inputs and mindfulness.
As I see all of the above about the lateral thinking is true as long as we stick to the fact that we do have the power of thinking. Power of our own thought and will, as philosophers put it a Free will. However, some mindfulness observations do not allow this to be a definite truth. As an example, when I say a Pink Elephant, your thoughts would be aligned with a Pink elephant. It seems what we see and hear strongly influences what we think. Hence, the thoughts are not the product, but someone can argue it is the outcome of what is happening "inside The box". And even we are unable to do even a basic programming to these processes. This is more evident when we see some of us are more creative in some aspects of life than the other, and we do not have a choice over this. Some are inherently good at math while suck at music and art, vice Versa. Hence, lateral thinking may not be a real truth but a relative one. And if that is the case, to improve the thoughts or do a proper lateral thinking only way is to be mindful about the facts. And Hope this will come as a good idea from the other side. And above techniques are such good information that you should be mindful about.
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