Thinking outside the box

I had a compliment on my writing. Someone (who knows about these things!) pointed out that I explore commonly found spreadsheet problems but by examining things that have nothing to do with spreadsheets. How did I get to be doing such a ‘masterful’ job (not my words) in such a ‘outside the box’ way?

Well, I thought it’s obvious.

It’s because most people think about the problem the same way that they approach the problem the same way.

But why?

It’s because they were all conditioned the same way. Meaning, their present way of looking at things is a result of a process (of acquiring knowledge) that followed the same, or roughly the same, path.

So, it seems obvious to me that to understand a problem from a different angle we need to come from a different angle.

But which different angle?

That also seems obvious. The answer is, with something that we already understand. And this would necessarily be something that’s quite different to spreadsheets.

So, I write about mountaineering, Beatles, and Celebrity Chefs.