acknowledge that box

“People who refer to out-of-the-box see the box… People who don’t know the box even exists are the innovative thinkers.”
― Lisa Goldenberg

I recently learned that, in some cities in Scotland and Japan, the street lights were changed to emit a soft blue color at night. And that, when the change was implemented, those cities had a notable reduction in suicide and crime rates. I consider this innovation to be attributed to out-of-the-box thinking.

Lisa Goldenberg says that innovative thinkers don’t know the box exists. Sure, that is true in some cases. And I believe that sometimes we’re not capable of out-of-the-box thinking until we first acknowledge the box in which we’ve been thinking. A single moment of insight can do wonders for seeing that metaphoric box.

Had any of those insights lately?