Talk:Thinking outside the box

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Articles for deletion This article was nominated for deletion on August 2 2006. The result of the discussion was speedy keep after massive rewrite.

Contents

[edit] The 9 dots problems

It deserves its own article, its not the same than the "thinking outside the box" phrase. Undead Herle King 17:27, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Strange phrasing in section on nine-dots puzzle

According to Kihn, consultants of the 1970s and 1980s tried to make their prospective clients feel inadequate by presenting them with the puzzle...

"Feel inadequate?" I'm not sure that's a really great way to get customers, and I'm sure that making prospective customers feel "inadequate" was hardly the point of giving them the puzzle. Is there a better way to phrase this? Thanks, Sillstaw 04:36, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

I changed it to 'inferior' —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 141.157.106.115 (talk) 09:14, 12 March 2007 (UTC).

Cool! A page about me, oh, wait...no its not :( Think outside the box 12:28, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Excellent article sourcing for a topic that must be difficult to source.

Great job on this. I have been marking several of the Clichés articles as unreferenced and expected to do the same on this. Boy was I surprised at how good this looks. Kudos to everyone who shapped it up. Slavlin 19:58, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Spoiler

I don't think the solution to the "box problem" should be displayed on the same page as the problem itself.

[edit] spoiler, concept, and buzzword?

1. agreed about the spoiler problem. it's not fair to give away the solution unless the reader explicitly requests it.

2. the basic lessons of the puzzle are not explicitly stated and should be:

   A.  don't infer rules that are NOT part of the problem statement.  

   B.  don't ignore rules that ARE part of the problem statement.  

   (that is, you cannot solve the problem by inferring a requirement 
    to stay inside the pereived "box", however, you also cannot solve 
    the problem by lifting your pencil.)

i think it's fine to discuss the concepts in the abstract in the main article as long as the solution is not given.

3. in a note the word "buzzword" is used incorrectly. "think outsed the box" is a phrase. a buzzword is a word. --ef —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.80.214.27 (talk) 13:13, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Preserving text removed from main article

As shown in the example in the left, the outside the box problem is part of a trademark connected to Evergreen Team Conceptslogo. Evergreen Team Concepts is a training and consulting company that claims to build teams outside the box.

I removed this text from the article; it struck me as spammy. - Smerdis of Tlön 15:15, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

The first appearance of the phrase is not obscure to people that worked in the Disney organization in the 1950s and 1960s. The nine dot puzzle was used in training sessions within the company. Each dot has a meaning and the two points outside of the box were labeled as "The Vision" and "The Method". After Walt Disney's death in 1966, everyone would ask, "How did Walt think?" Mike Vance, then Dean of Disney University would explain the nine dot puzzle and how you had to Think Outside of the Box to solve it, as how Walt Disney's thought process always worked. This term became common in the Disney organization from then on. Upon leaving Disney in the late 1970s, international speaker Mike Vance would talk extensively about the nine dot puzzle and how Walt Disney would "Think Outside The Box" in all of his speeches and seminars. Mike was encouraged to write a book about thinking outside the box, which he did in 1995. There is no doubt that the thousands of speeches that Mike gave in the 1980s and 1990s popularized the term "Thinking Outside the Box". Mike is so lined to that phrase that when he worked with Taco Bell on a new commercial they came up with the slogan "Think Outside the Bun" and it stuck. Mike Vance is considered the Dean of Creative Thinking. http://www.creativethinkingassoc.com

This text might actually shed light on the origins of the catchphrase. The reference cited, though, is to a consultancy business. The website's text does not well substantiate the full claims being made here. I have reworded and substantially shortened the text. Puffery claims like "Mike Vance is considered the Dean of Creative Thinking" don't really belong, nor do conspicuous external links to consulting businesses. - Smerdis of Tlön 15:27, 1 November 2007 (UTC)