Outside the Box

We hear so often about innovation at whatever you do.  It seems to be the current brass ring to the next and greatest APP ever.  Websites are devoted to it. Papers are issued on what it is.  Lectures are given on how to do it.    There are even degree programs on achieving this illusive ability.

One of the keys to invention is the so-called “thinking outside the box.” However, for innovation from outside the box, the first need is understand what’s inside the box. Namely, is your idea actually outside the box?

In this connection, it is important to know your great new idea is not simply one that fails.  The alternative is to expend resources to determinine it doesn’t.  Wasted time!

All new innovations I’ve ever heard of come from experts on the “inside, looking outside.”  You need some examples.

a.    Pasteur and the application of germ theory to serious disease such as anthrax or rabies.

b.    Object oriented programming as a method of accessing and using information.

c.     The whole concept of relativity in understanding physics.

d.    The heliocentric system of planetary and celestial motion.

None of these simply came from amateurs with little prior experience at what they do.

Moral: To think outside the box, you absolutely must first know what’s inside the box.