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Issue 23
June 2009
Get Back Inside the Box
Whenever people claim to "think outside the box," they're obviously thinking inside the box. The phrase refers to original thinking, but it has become a cliché, and clichés by their very nature represent the opposite of original thinking.
Most likely, the phrase came from this little brain teaser:
Take a square grid of nine dots. Try to connect all dots using only four lines, and do not remove the (imaginary) pen as you draw your lines.
One's natural instinct is to keep the four lines within the grid. But the puzzle can't be solved in this way. The only solution is to extend the lines outside the box.
Cool trick, right? The puzzle shows how the mind imposes artificial limitations on solutions to problems. This lesson resonated in the business world, and "thinking outside box" caught on as a corporate catchphrase. It eventually careened out of control to where it became irritating, simplistic, and unexamined. In fact, it has been argued that companies like AIG and Countrywide abandoned their tried-and-true business processes and collapsed from too much outside-of-the-box thinking.
About this E-mail
The Awkward Adverb, an e-mail newsletter sent out once a month, highlights English-language flaws that have appeared on a sign, in print, on the Web, or anywhere in the public sphere. It may address grammatical errors, careless usage, bothersome buzzwords, punctuation problems, misspellings, or confusing writing in general.
Subscribers are encouraged to submit their findings for future editions of The Awkward Adverb by responding to this e-mail. Archived past issues of the newsletter are located here.
Action Copy, the publisher of The Awkward Adverb, is the business name for New Orleans-based freelance writer Henry Alpert, who works with businesses, ad agencies, and graphic design firms on a wide array of writing projects. For more information about Action Copy's services, visit action-copy.com.
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