Inside the Box

We're wired to think that the box is evil.

There comes a point when rote or routine just can't get the job done anymore. As Einstein once intimated, there is no greater sign of insanity than to do the same thing over and over again and expect the result to be different. Hence, we soon learn that cookie-cutter approaches and one-size-fits-all solutions to problems work only up to a point.

And so we're told to think out of the box.

The assumption, of course, is that we tend to become comfortable with the status quo: with how things are usually done, with how people usually think, with what people usually say, and so on. In short, we abide by constraints that box us in and keep us from innovating. Hence, the simple conclusion: to be creative we have to break free.

Except that this way of thinking fails to appreciate that creativity thrives not just in spite of but because of limitations.

What makes something a work of art are the constraints that an artist deftly overcomes to showcase her skill: the size of the canvass, the hues of the paint, the coarseness of the brushes, etcetera. Consider: if the same artist had an unlimited amount of resources with which to work, her achievement would be nowhere near as noteworthy as what she was able to conceive and achieve in view of any and all limitations. It is precisely the existence of such constraints that force us to be creative and do things differently. And were it not for such obvious limitations, how else could we marvel at the truly remarkable?

Think about it: as the Bible recounts, what is majestic is not that an Omnipotent Deity created the world, but that He did so in six days.

Perhaps it's true that imagination may call for some pretty out of the box thinking. Or it may simply entail looking at limitations in entirely new ways.