What Does "Thinking Outside Of The Box"Mean To You?

Question

Me: The only time I ever really encountered someone who said this a lot, would say it when I wouldn't conform to what they wanted, expected...

WindAtMyBack · Accepted Answer

It means someone has an MBA and likes to use a lot of buzz words that have no meaning. It got really bad during the 90s.

Someone came up with the great idea of buzzword bingo. The way it's played is you have a list of MBA type buzzwords like; Think Outside the Box, Paradigm, Human Resources, ISO 5000 compliant, Market Penetration, Six Sigma, etc. So at a company meeting everyone has a bingo card. Whenever a manager uses a listed buzzword, you mark it on your card. The first to get a straight line of five yells BINGO, and they are the winner.

I never knew anyone who actually played it. But everyone knew about it. It was funny as hell. It totally made fun of the MBA types and all their verbal spaghetti that said absolutely nothing.

Massageman · Accepted Answer

"Thinking outside the box" is an English idiom that means to explore ideas and solutions that are creative, unusual, and innovative, and are not common, limited or controlled by rules, tradition, or intrinsic self-imposed barriers or limitations.
Think outside the box - Idioms by The Free Dictionary

Anyone who has seen the TV series MacGyver (the original series with RDA, thank you, and one of my favorites), understands that thinking outside the box was the driving force for the protagonist hero of the show! And of course, who can forget the infamous "9-dot puzzle"?

https://www.youtube.com/embed/XfCa3wn37mU

And if your are REALLY up to a challenge, do it with THREE lines!

crazyish · Accepted Answer

"The box" is society norms, what is accepted, what you've been nurtured to to believe, what you're past experiences have taught you or how things are usually done. To "think outside of the box" is to not let any of these control your own perspective or behaviors. It's just being able to see things from all perspectives. The bigger picture. Having an open and accepting mind.

NotTacocaT6969 · Accepted Answer

To me it means setting my own perspective aside and trying to put myself in the place of others.

If you were a fly, being trapped in a spider’s web would be terrifying.

But if you were a spider, having a fly trapped in your web would mean survival.

An extreme example, but it gets the point across.

pervertedjester · Answer

Corporate's code for not giving you a raise for doing the job they trained you to do.

BarryLiverstone · Answer

Step #1 Escape The Box
This can be done with a ladder and rope

Step #2 Thinking
Assume the pose statue-like as ‘The Thinker’

Step #3 Travel
Go to a new country, eat new food and grow to miss The Box

Step #4 Go Home
Return to The Box and start a wash of all your dirty clothes from the trip

Or one could say when Bill Clinton stated ‘I did not have sex with that woman’ the woman he pointed to was ‘thinking’ : “I picked a wrong time to leave my box”

Myk13 · Answer

Not very many people have the ability to come up with new ways to do things. Those are the ones inside the box. Doing what they do because that’s the way it’s always been done. The few that naturally think outside of the box are famous or rich and famous because they come up with things that when we hear about them we slap our foreheads because we didn’t think of it before. I call them the “geturdone” people. Don’t get me wrong, we all have great ideas every now and then. We usually have them at work. Then they become the property of the company’s that we work for. Save money, time, overhead, taxes, whatever it may be.

ThePolishKnight37 · Answer

What it means to me is trying to look at it from a different angle than you usually do. But The third poster says it best. That is how I try to look at it all the time. Try to see it from every angle. not just yours or someone elses, but every possible way. That way you get the whole picture.

MannMitAntworten · Answer

I remember long ago having to look at a pile of resumes. Damn near all of them listed, “Thinking outside if the box.” as a skill or characteristic. All I remember think was that everyone apparently thinks alike and wondered who was thinking in the box...

Anymore to me it means one is cliché and actually does not really think. Especially when those same individuals tend to respond with the same canned responses.

PaynefulPleasures · Answer

Going beyond your comfort zone, it's like what you learn in school it's a different world once you complete your education. Go pass the limits, don't stay limited ✌️

Jaylaa2000 · Answer

You are creative. You can take the impossible and make it possible.  You can figure things out others can't because you see more than black and white.

purplepoppy · Answer

It's based on a stupid join the dots game that's supposed to measure ability to think creatively. But in reality it's a tired cliche that most people already know the answer to.

Wiredone · Answer

To me it means using your imagination and being creative to solve a problem that is out of the ordinary. I have to be creative every day in my field of work. I have a lot of customers that want me to perform the impossible. I " think outside of the box" and make it possible.

Jjpayne · Answer

Not being trapped by what others think of you or for you. You are your own person that is not limited by anyone else's vision but your own

genericname85 · Answer

it means that you don't let artificial boundaries limit your thinking. limits to your thinking could be things like morals, social standards, appropriateness or something as simple as a frame for solution possibilities that are implied with a question someone asked.

JosyJosy · Answer

Doing things your way, what you think is right, instead of what others think or expect you to do, instead of the majority, instead of what the masses view as the normal or right approach

ChrisMaster69 · Answer

We use it a fair bit with problem solving. meaning don’t think the usual solutions, come at it from a different direction, think something potentially radical.

1stranger · Answer

Its meaning to think differently.
For example, everybody says I miss you. But I say that "Missing is just 1 word and 7 letters, but missing you is equivalent to pages of sentences." I love being outside of the box.

Siren777 · Answer

Going against the grain. People who think outside of the box don't have tunnel vision. They're pioneers and unique. Unusual creative ways of problem solving. A bit of a nut cracker but quite intelligent with many quirks.

krin_m · Answer

I absolutely think that term is overused by people who lack imagination and want to pretend that they are creative! I'm not bitter or anything! 😀😀😀😀😀

andreasderjuengere · Answer

It means that there's not too much support from others. But it's worth while. Tough, to be a genius :D

Avicenna · Answer

Being willing to be creative and challenge “conventional wisdom”.

loveslongnails · Answer

New approaches to old things. Considering non-conventional solutions that may be more efficient and more effective.

FatherJack · Answer

Not being a lamestream " media " driven , herd animal drone , that is actually capable of independent thought & critical thinking.

GoodGuyBreakingBad · Answer

I'll think it's better to think inside of the box but who knows this has me puzzled? LOL

Wise4myage · Answer

I think it means not to think in narrow minded ways and don't believe everything you hear.

exitseven · Answer

It is a way to come up with a solution to a problem by using other disciplines than the ones normally used it similar situations.

IAMNathanael · Answer

To me it means an alternative way of thinking about things because your brain is wired a different way.

SpaceGalaxy · Answer

Don't believe everything you have been told since birth and use your brain... is how I'd interpret it

loves2learn · Answer

Spreading your wings, thinking big picture, insightful new ideas.

Lliam · Answer

Thinking creatively.  Being innovative. Breaking the rules at times.

cheapshotbob · Answer

it means fitting a square peg in a circle hole with ingenuity XD

KatherinexPierce · Answer

I’d say it means typrying to think in different ways or to think harder or better then you normally do o think I’m not to sure excactly

IveGotNoName · Answer

Having a different approach to something than the people around you or the average people would have

Redred56 · Answer

Simply put, getting what I need done in another way, if my first path is blocked

sheikalana · Answer

Not following the most predictable way. Finding solutions and alternatives.

Likes2drive · Answer

Finding another way of doing something that may be non conventional

888theGreat · Answer

The only ones that don't really think outside the box are the ones that say they think outside the box.

EssenceOfLight · Answer

being creative in slightly eccentric but not that way people think you're weird.

JamieLoves · Answer

Not thinking as most others do. Looking for a different and unique way of solving a problem...

Anonymous · Answer

Seeing a new avenue to solving a problem other than the direct ways. It's useful though often direct solutions are best.
The nine dot problem is of course the classic case (maybe even origin of phrase).

ItsMeItsMe1989 · Answer

Not going with the herd, like republicucks, and trumptards to

lucyloo76 · Answer

Looking at something in a different way.

najekim · Answer

Means coming with ideas that is not normally thought of for a particular situation or problem. I have to do that all the time where I work.

msc545 · Answer

Let me out of the box!

Justneedtokno · Answer

Use critical thinking outside of your normal way

TheAfrikan · Answer

Thinking beyond the ordinary man.

Chris_u006 · Answer

That Im unique for doing so.

Andres77 · Answer

Left hook...

collie22 · Answer

use your imagination

What Does "Thinking Outside Of The Box"Mean To You?

Most Helpful Opinions

What Girls & Guys Said

People say think outside the box?

What Does "Thinking Outside Of The Box"Mean To You?

Most Helpful Opinions

What Girls & Guys Said

People say think outside the box?

We're glad to see you liked this post.