Think Inside the Box

Another phrase of which I think little (here he goes again) is when we are told to think outside the box. The fact is that there's nothing outside the box to think about.

Oh, I know what they, the infamous they, mean. They mean for you to be innovative and creative. That's all well and good. We need innovation and creation. The trouble is that there's nothing you can innovate or create without using tools and concepts which preexist your changes or inventions.

The artist cannot paint without a knowledge of the tools and practices of art. The inventor cannot invent without knowing the background of whatever field in which he is making something new. The atomic bomb wasn't made without making use of the existing laws of physics and the knowable rules of mathematics and mechanics. 

To be sure, a painting or the bomb didn't exist as such before their initial manufacture. Yet no one truly thought outside of any box in making them. They came about through the use of materials and intellect which were already there to be employed. So we can go ahead and throw thinking outside the box into the dust bin with all those other useless phrases which I rail so much about.