Consider this story of a father and daughter playing checkers for the first time:
“I eventually jumped her last piece… She stared at the board very carefully with furrowed brow and I finally said, ‘You don’t have any more pieces to move.’ To this, she simply replied, ‘Can I move one of yours?'”
Some might call this thinking outside the box. I’d say it’s a darn fine example of not thinking like a technician. But I think it goes beyond that, to say a lot about humans’ innate ability to let go of constraints and be passively creative (much different than brainstorming on a whiteboard and voting on the “best” ideas later).
It reminded me of my friend Mike’s commencement address:
“If there is only one thing you remember from my comments here today, it should be this: This is all made up.
By that, I mean that what appears to be ‘the way things are’ is really just invented by people. You, each of you, get to invent what your future will be like.”
What could you do if there were no rules, no laws, and no “way things are?”
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