In the 1970s, “thinking outside the box” became a popular new management approach.
It started with what was called the nine-dot problem. There were three rows of three dots, and the question was how you could cover all nine dots in four lines without raising your pen or pencil.
It turned out that you could only cover all nine dots if you drew one of the lines diagonally through the dots and created an angle to come back in and finish.
Most people automatically created a box around the three rows of three dots and eliminated the only solution that worked. In short, our natural pattern of thought led us to invent a box even though it did not exist.
This exercise was rapidly translated by consultants, management trainers, and writers into “thinking outside the box.”
- When America Stops Believing in America, the World Notices
The Founders understood that a republic’s strength begins in the settled conviction of its own citizens. - The Jeffersonian Political Future
Republicans should develop a broad embracing platform which will be supported by 75 percent to 80 percent of the American people. - The Hospital-Insurance Company Rip Off System
There has been a long struggle to enable Americans to know what they are really paying for in healthcare — and what their options are in quality and price of service. - Mamdani’s Anti-American Fantasy Reflects Far Left’s Reliance on Alternative Facts
If the radical left is forced to stick with the record and the facts, its complaints fall apart. - The Empire of Liberty vs the Dictatorship of Hate
Watching the parallel television coverage of the American celebration of our 250th anniversary and the funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave me a deep sense of contrast.