It’s pretty common advice these days which is a little ironic considering how little the outside the box thinking actually tends to happen from the people who encourage it.
This happens simply because when most people urge you to “think outside the box”, what they’re really trying to say is “stop thinking like everyone else and think like me.” Very rarely do they actually want you to think outside any box. They simply want you to trade boxes and think inside a different colored box with different rules, different viewpoints and different opinions that happen to be newer, shinier and that they also happen to like better.
Represented visually, it would look something like this:
Not much of a difference, huh?
Instead of actually thinking “outside of the box”, they simply want you to agree with their opinion that comes in a brightly pre-packaged “new & improved box.” So, instead of actually challenging the rules, deciding something for yourself and charting new territory, you’re simply agreeing with a different set of somewhat shinier & newer rules in your new & improved box and calling the new box “innovative.” This is why so many “groundbreaking” ideas, blogs, and startups aren’t really that groundbreaking after all.
A Better Way
There’s a better way to “think outside box”, but it will only happen when you’re able to realize one thing…
THERE IS NO BOX
(Yes, I just channelled my inner-Neo.)
Nobody is telling you that you can’t do something (if they are, you should probably ditch them).
You can literally do whatever you want. Even if it’s unconventional, nerdy, audacious, risky or impossible.
What if instead of just following what other people said, you went and figured it out for yourself? What if instead of simply accepting people’s opinions as facts and adopting them as your own, you actually challenged them with your own thoughts and opinions? What if instead of accepting someone else’s opinions just ’cause, you actually sat down and thought about why you agree with it? Instead of “thinking outside the box” and simply picking another box of thought up off the curbside, you dug into the nitty gritty of your own mind?
Eating My Own Dog Food
One of the reasons I like writing here so much is that if I’m wrong about something, I fully expect to be called out. I love having readers that think for themselves. If I’m vague, confusing, dumb or otherwise incoherent, I get grilled on it. My viewpoints, opinions and thoughts are constantly being challenged & refined. Some people might not enjoy that aspect, but I like love it.
It keeps me on my toes, it keeps me sharp and it keeps me actually thinking out of “the box” and any other “boxes” people have pre-made for me.
So next time someone tells you to “think outside the box”, just do your best Neo impression and tell them “there is no box” and think for yourself.
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A few extra things
After a few days in Hawaii, I’m finally back in Indiana, but you see some of my HDR photos from the trip on flickr.
Hawaii Video Postcards are up! If you asked for one, go find yours & let me know what you think >>> Hawaii Video Postcards
Also, I just spent $2,000 in deposits, signing 40+ people to jump out of a plane with me at #WDS in Portland this June. It’s official and it’s gonna be a blast.
[Photo Credit]
My buddy Jim Hays has an interesting perspective on this. He says “the reason most people have trouble thinking outside the box is because they’re looking for the instructions on the inside”. Exactly. I’d be handy if there was a sure-fire way to get those radical shifts in perspective and have genius insights on tap. Ironically, any attempt to boil it down to a repeatable method pretty much defeats the essence of “thinking outside the box” 😉 Thanks for the mention, Joel!
I like that quote 🙂 Who’s this friend of yours anyways? You should share him. Sounds like a smart guy.
Joel, refreshing spin on the box! I couldnt agree more, but maybe I shouldn’t. This could get confusing quickly. I like Seth Godin’s recent Poke the Box idea and I think you’re really hitting on something here. The hard part is that this damn box does exist. Its the rules we tell our children to follow from pre-school through college, and then straight into the box (cubicle). My goal is to ignore the box and create new freedom.
I haven’t read Poke The Box….yet.
Good call on ignoring the box…it’s a lot more fun out here in the open 🙂
“… what they’re really trying to say is ‘stop thinking like everyone else and think like me.'” This is oh so accurate. I see, and experience, examples of this almost daily where I work. And you’re right, I should probably ditch the situation, but for now the hours are fairly good and the money… is adequate to get by… (sometimes time off is worth more than money)… so I try to content myself with reducing the self-induced mental friction (as addressed in another of your recent posts) and working “around” the boxes.
It’s amazing how much friction you can cut out just by deciding to not let things bother you. Good luck with the situation & keep working outside the boxes 🙂
i say step on boxes to get where you want to be…
What about the other people still inside them? 😉
I probably mostly stay inside of the box and just take vacations outside of it from time to time. Then I return to the box with outrageous stories to which the people inside the box say “I could never do that!”
Just out of curiosity, what keeps you coming back “inside the box.”
“you can literally do whatever you want.”
bang on dude. keep on livin. and if you’re gonna eat dog food, try the chicken jerky kind… not bad. even if your sober.
I’m not going to lie. I’m a little worried how you know that Dane 🙂
if i told you my friends are nuts, i don’t think you’d even believe me haha!
Well it definitely sounds like they’re interesting :0
I’ve often thought the same thing. Whenever I hear someone say “think outside the box” I think that they’re probably a very unimaginative person.
Hi there,
I have some thoughts on this. I took some drafting classes as an interior design student and while I always felt that thinking outside of the box was good, I new something was missing.
And while having ‘no box’ as you state is good the thrill only last a moment. Then your left with empty nothingness.
As a design student we learn that every thing must have form and function. Not rules or constraints but a medium through which things can be brought to life.
For instance a body of water without strong boundaries becomes a stagnant swamp, but the higher a riverbed the faster that river flows.
So I just have a suggestion. Now that you have ‘no box’ why not invent a new box whatever you choose. But don’t just let it fizzle out… build it to completion.
I like your analogies :).
Creating a structure is one of the easiest ways to boost creativity. Creating boundaries can bring an influx of new ideas and innovative thinking.
That said, those rules should be of your own choosing. Getting “boxed” into a set of rules that other people set for you though is a recipe for living someone else’s life.
That is great article. So I guess, Neo by saying that there is no spoon, and that’s why he could bend it, he was really saying that there is no box. Maybe without box we really can gain more control over life.