HOW TO THINK OUT OF BOX

    Here is a job interview question which forces you to think out of the box.
     "It is an ancient invention.  It helps us to see through walls.  It is widely used throughout the world.  What is it?"
     The answer is W O D N I W (spelling reversed)
     The word "invention" makes us think about "scientific devices".  But sometimes think "out of usual".

  How to cultivate the habit of lateral thinking?  Here, I will try to present one procedure.
     First, let us take one problem.  You employ a painter to paint the irregular shape of a wall for artistic purpose. How to calculate the surface area of the wall?  How much to pay to the painter?  How much paint to buy?

Now, the procedure, 
     Take six hats in different colours.  White, black, red, green, yellow, and blue.

 STEPS:
     1. Put on a white hat.  Think about facts and available info.
     If we have standard shapes, like rectangle and circle, we can use standard formulas to calculate the area.  Here the shape is chaotically irregular.  What to do?

     2. Wear a black cap.  Think negative.
     Suppose, you populate the surface with one-inch squares, count the number of squares and find the area.  It will be a laborious process.

     3. Go for the red hat.  Think emotionally and go with your intuition.
     There must be some easy solution.  Consider dart throwing game.  If the target is a big circle on a square sheet, and if you through darts randomly on it, most of them will land inside the big circle and a few will land outside the circle.  There is something.  Think further.

4. Think with a green hat:  Use your fertile imagination.  Be creative and provocate yourself.
     Statistics say that no.of darts falling is proportional to the area.  More the area, more the darts.  One can say, the no. of darts within the area gives roughly the percentage of the area.
     How this knowledge helps here?  Perhaps, we have to use some technology.
 5. Yellow hat:  Go for positive and constructive thinking.
     Photograph the wall (area), scan and feed to the computer.  Shrink and put the shape in a unit square.  Randomly generate [say] 10000 points (darts) within the one square inch area and count the no. of points within our shape.  Suppose 7350 points have fallen within the shape, the area is .735 square inch accurately.  We can scale the area to the actual shape on the wall using the length and breadth of the wall. At last, We got the area of the irregular shape very accurately.

6. Blue hat:  Control, shape, orchestrate the solution.
   
     One can write software for this solution.  We can also make an 'app'.  Just by photographing the shape with a smartphone, one can immediately get the area.

     By generalising the software, similar and new problems can be solved with it.
 Note:  1. This method is actually called "Monte Carlo" technique.  The value of 'pi' was also calculated using this method.  Remember 'pi' is connected with the area of the circle.

     "Out of box thinking" is required for inventions and innovations.  Fresh thinking is essential in media and advertising to attract and hold the eye-balls.

     From bird to plane
     From fish to ship
     From spider net to fishing net
     From spider to spiderman
 we created a lot.  
     Think fresh, create a new.   

Note: Try to find the area TEXAS, the map is given above.
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