We had a guest lecturer for the Professional Practice subject this morning, who is an established engineer in a reputable company. He was lecturing about the responsibilities of engineers in today's context, which I find pretty thought provoking. Engineers are people who take simple things, and by application of some complex scientific and technological knowledge not necessarily clear to them, make them into devices or facilities which achieve an intended purpose, in a way that the public in general has no reason whatsoever to suspect the extent of their ignorance. Cute definition eh?

A point was made about innovation, which he defined, among other things, as thinking outside the box. Thinking outside the box...


This is actually a very cliche term which has been overused, I think. So much so that using the term may mean that you're actually NOT thinking outside the box. Irony huh.

So.. How do we think outside the box?



I found out about this catchphrase years ago used by TACO Bell. It's a burger chain in the US apparently. I mean, THIS is so NOT original man! And it's definitely not thinking OUTSIDE the box. Well, some people might think that it's actually quite clever, but think outside the BUN??? wat the.. OK maybe yeah.. some people might think about world peace, third world poverty and all that WHILE downing their buns, is that what it means by thinking outside the bun? haha.. i dunno..

But yeah.. thinking outside the box..


.. is not as straightforward as mugging for exams, or getting all the complex theories in your head. To me, I think it's something you get when you're not afraid of ridicule.

It's definitely something I wanna work on..