I went to see a movie today Be Kind Rewind. I thought the movie wasn’t too bad but over all I felt it was too real. Now I am a fan of true stories and things of that nature but who wants to be reminded of reality when you are watching a movie? Film buffs and cinefiles put down your rocks.
I think I have spent too much time reading theory or something. When I see a movie I want entertainment or something that’s going to make me forget reality. Reality can be your best friend but for some of us it’s annoying. It’s just always there to remind you that there is this bigger social structure out there that tells you what you can and can’t achieve.
A challenge to my readers and all who read this post
Forget reality! Let’s experiment for a while and see what happens. I am going to dream like I did when I was teenager (no not about boobs!). I mean the deep seated heart level BS that won’t leave me alone. This is the stuff that’s lodged inside of me and wants to rip out of me like a bout of bad curry. Dreams? Why on earth do we dream about things that are so impossible? Why do these things grip us and may us miserable if we don’t take steps to fulfill them? It’s like having an itch in yer guts that you can’t scratch. EVER!
So now that I am looking to develop potential I am now looking at my dreams. I will NOT let reality get in my way!
Recently I was at work and put the students to the test on a problem: fix the traffic crisis. I showed them the above video and they came up with some interesting answers. Think about these:
airlifting
underground train station
tunnel
eliminate the need for travel – complex for everything
encourage other alternatives
changing the way we work
My personal favourite with the complex for everything. This idea was that work/home/everything else should be centralised to local community. Sure it’s a bit Orwellian but I really like the idea of working near home. So what does this have to do with lateral thinking?
Lateral Thinking
The most common definition for lateral thinking is ‘thinking outside the box’. What precisely does that mean? Well I think to think about it this way. There is a logical box in which we contain all maps of the world. When we come to solve problems we often look at the issue through out preconceptions of the world. These issues prevent us from seeing non-linear solutions to a problem that lies outside the area we are focusing on.
To that end the word ‘lateral’ really means ‘sideways’. So for me I like to think about lateral thinking as ‘sideways’ thinking. It requires a mental shift to a sideways issue that isn’t immediately obvious. It means moving outside the ‘logic box’ and into a new way of thinking that at first seems unrelated. As you move sideways you begin to see the ‘lateral’ pattern emerge and you make better judgements from this new perspective. Once you are there you can see the connection but you have to move llaterally in order to achieve this.
How does lateral thinking actually work?
It works by you moving sideways in your thought. It means moving outside the system of your thought to a position that is presently unrelated. In the traffic crisis example, if you kept building bigger roads it would mean not picking a solution that is NOT related to roads specifically. It might be something like: staggering work hours, changing where people work or rewarding employees for working from home (for example). That’s lateral because it asks the question: what’s the cause of the problem… and how can we change that so that the problem no longer occurs. That’s lateral thinking.
One of the key things to remember when you engage in this form of thinking is to be aware of what you think the problem is. Whatever you take the problem to be… you take the solution to be… the two are inseparable. In lateral thinking you have the power to ask: what could we do if we could do anything and begin to explore ‘outside the logic box’ solutions. Sadly, I don’t see enough of this in places I venture. It’s much the same crap remulched over and over and over again. Why not dare to be different and begin to think creatively?
I was just watching the news as I am getting ready to travel interstate when I heard that rent is going to increase by 50% over the next four years. Holy crap! Where on earth are we going to get the money to fund that? As Gordon Ramsey would say, ‘F*** me!’.
Being the internal optimist (hey even my grade criteria is optimistic) I was thinking so what does that mean for me and people like me who are the lower end of the middle class? The reality is this: either find a way to make more money or kiss the dream goodbye. It’s no longer just out of my reach… it’s miles out of my reach. It’s so far out of my reach that I would have to stretch further than plastic man!
You know what I have learned from this whole thing… there is a reason you need faith some times. The current situation only suits those that have money and can make a fist of it. Those that have a bit or a little more than a bit are stuffed. What I want to know is why are we tolerating it?
So to finish my morning rant I have to say this: what’s the answer? This is, after all, the problem solving blog. I have heard a great majority of answers but for me only one real answer springs to mind:
I was reading google analytics for the front page of this blog and I wanted to know where people are coming from when they read my blog turns out it’s California. No, not yet California but Los Angeles! The second group of people from my Google Analytics page was Brisbane, Australia. What up Brisbanites! If you love me… digg or stumble me .
So who comes in third? Londoners. That’s right London! I was as suprised as you are (if you are not from London that is) when I read that. Over 1/3 of my visitors (generally speaking) are from London. The biggest surprise personally was Brisbane. Our population is like 20 million compared to 300 million in the US and 70 million in the UK. Wow. If you are a blogger I recommend you get into the google analytics just to see where your audience is from.
This is not a sponsored post… just a thought experiment.
Hello everybody. That’s right I have made 200 posts on this blog and I am still going. So far I have written 140988 words and counting. That’s a lot isn’t it? I thought I would celebrate this milestone by thanking my readers. Thank you for giving me a life outside of my job and giving me the confidence to know that I can actually write something meaningful other than long academic words. So what’s coming up on my problem solving blog? There are a lot of exciting things coming up and one that I am going to launch in the next little while for people who are serious about developing as a person. I have some great ideas to take this blog from 8,000 people a month stage to a much higher level. Remember though it’s not the sizeof the boat… it’s the motion in the ocean!
I began this blog with 0 subscribers and 0 readers. Today I have 40 subscribers and over 8,000 people a month who read what I write. Hey I’m not problogger but I can say this… I really enjoy blogging. Do you realise that it’s probably around 100 times the amount of people who have ever read my journal papers or conference work! I have been in a crowd of over 1,000 and thought that was overwhelming. One time I lectured to 500. That was a lot of people… and they didn’t even want to be there! Although I can’t see all of your faces, I want to say thanks for stopping by.
Of course, this is only the beginning and like I always say… the best is yet to come.
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