Think Inside The Box -- Principles

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THINK INSIDE THE BOX: PRINCIPLES

There are a few guiding principles of this approach.
The first principle attempts to define what an idea is.
Simply this: a new combination of existing
elements. The appeal of combining things into new
forms is a key characteristic of people we tend to
identify as "creative."

Einstein used the phrase "combinatorial play" in
describing his own work. The theory of the
conservation of energy and the theory of the
conservation of mass were well established but had
never been combined prior to Einstein. He
combined them in the deceptively simple "E=mc2."
My nephew, David, is similarly preoccupied with
combinatorial play. In a typical moment he once
grabbed some casters and string to keep himself
busy at his grandparent's house. He was content
for hours finding things to invent from those two
seemingly disparate items.

The second principle says we are successful in
bringing existing elements into new combinations to
the degree to which we are able to discern patterns
or relationships between things. If I asked you, for
example, what the relationship between dogs and
restaurants is, at first blush it seems like a non
sequitor. But if you were to visit a restaurant called
Fred's you'd find a casual dining experience
themed around a black Labrador and a tag line that
says "Come! Sit! Stay!"

The realization that the vocabulary you use to talk to
your dog is the same you could use to convey
hospitality creates a relationship between seemingly
unrelated things. It also reveals a deep insight. The
goal of thinking inside the box is to find relationships
that go beyond the obvious. The restaurant could
have been called "Bone Appetit," which would have
established the relationship, but in a much less
insightful way.

The third principle simply asserts that the more we
have to work with and draw from, the more likely we
are to come up with interesting combinations. If you
have only two things"in your box" you're pretty much
limited to this connecting those two things. And that's it.

But the more things you have in your "box," the
greater shot you have at identifying and creating a
wide range of interesting and potentially meaningful
connections.

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