Thinking Outside The Box

“Thinking outside the box” refers to “thinking differently or from a new perspective”. From this definition, one may think that nothing wrong with it; It is good to have different perspectives, different voices in the conversation; and I totally agree with it. However, this advice unfortunately became an end itself, It is now just a signal for cleverness, and coolness. I think this is very unfortunate trend.

To give an example, the context “thinking outside box” originates is as follows:

One person approaches a problem differently, thinks about it from a different angle
Reaches a point different than the norm, or status quo; This changes the paradigm.
Now, she is a hero, and everyone admires her.

Above lifecycle got replaced by the following unfortunately

I want to be cool.
The cool people makes things differently, behave differently, they are peculiar.
To be cool, I should be different.

I think, at least subconsciously, this is the current situation. People now equate being different, being marginal with cleverness, coolness.

This is very unfortunate trend, because it eases the propagation of marginal ideas to society, it creates fertile ground for conspiracy theories. I think part of the reason for rise of alt-right is this trend. These ideologies give their holders the sense that they are fighting the elites, status quo, etc. They feel themselves as hero, who can say unsayable, who can do unthinkable. They like to flirt with taboos just for the sake of doing it. In a sense, they want to be lynched by community, because society is not ready for their view and their value would be seen by future generations.

This writing doesn’t mean we should all be conservatives or do whatever most of the people do every time. The point is that, if you already know where you are going, when you start “thinking outside the box”. You are not “thinking outside the box”.

Goodhart’s Law states that “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”. I think nowadays, being peculiar, became a target and it is no longer a good measure.