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.

I'm only thinking

What's the first thing, and I mean the very first thing, that you have to do before you do anything, anything at all? You have to think about doing it, right?

But does thinking about doing it mean that you will do it? Does it mean in fact you must do it? Does it commit you or anyone else to doing it, or force them to alter their plans, their course of action? Of course not, to all three questions. Thinking about doing something means only that you are considering that option, nothing more.

It does not mean that you are intending to run roughshod over someone else or their plans. It does not mean that you are, have, or will insult or embarrass anyone. Thinking about doing something does not of necessity mean that you intend to put the screws to somebody. Sure, it might. But not of necessity. You may well simply be thinking about doing something. I would even go so far as to say that for most people most of the time that's the extent of it. They are merely considering an option.

This means too, generally anyway, that you are going to explore that option by any reasonable means. You will consider how it may affect other people; you are willing to adjust or abandon the idea if it will cause unwarranted consternation. Indeed you will consider whether you really want to do it at all. I mean, if you're a decent, sensible fellow that's all part of thinking about it, right? There is no harm done, no offense committed, merely by thinking of something. It matters not either where and how the thought was first expressed. Taking the thought process to mean any more than that is, usually, senseless. Childish in fact. It's that simple.