We often hear people say “think out of the box”?  What exactly does it mean?

I would say that the box could be our comfort zone. The Wikipedia defines comfort zone as the environments and behaviours with which one is comfortable, without creating a sense of risk. With this definition, an analogy that vividly comes to mind is the one about the frog.  The poor thing sits comfortably inside a jar of water, not knowing that it is on a simmering fire and is gradually (unaware by itself) boiled to death. People say the biggest danger is the lack of a sense of danger. How true it is!

I would also describe the box as the box of conformity. Human civilization has gone through different eras of transformation, from the agricultural state, to industrialization, to the computer age, and now the information highway.  For most things, we know that we simply cannot apply the same principles from our ancestors and make it work at this time and age.  We need to change.

I remember some interesting questions from a brain-power workshop I attended some time ago.  For instance:

“Who would win the race, the rabbit or the tortoise?”  (Would you like to think of your answer first before reading on?)

I don’t know your answer, but almost all the people on the floor (including myself) said,” the tortoise!”

We were right if we were asked about the forever told story of the Rabbit and the Tortoise.  Why on earth would we think that the tortoise could run faster than the rabbit if not because of that story you and I have heard over a hundred times?  This is a good case of conformity, isn’t it?

Now, what about “1+1 =?”

Live Life, Junius.