Thinking out of the box

[Kayla55]

A few years ago I had to collect a few new staff for graphic and website design,
Shifting through portfolio of websites done they all followed latest trends and looked the same and as true as Bob each one had stated creative thinker and out of the box.
Is this just a cliche' that people use on their CV?
When you do design differently then people say no they wanted it to look like that website they saw on ???com

 

[Rodafina]

I also find it a bit strange and confusing for anyone to use a cliché to suggest that their thinking is especially unique. If someone really wanted to show that they think "out of the box," it seems like they would come up with an entirely new phrase for the idea.

 

[Mr. Stevens]

Smash the box. Or hide your unfriendly cat inside.

 

[Slime_Punk]

It's one of those phrases that means pretty much nothing. "We use cutting-edge technology!" is another one.

 

[Hypnalis]

People who actually think "outside the box" do exist, but they are rare.
By the time they're adults they know it too, because they achieve different results, or the same ones by different paths.

It's good that creatives use the same tools and keep up with developments (including fashion, which matters in site design).
To test for true original thinking, ask for an example. If they can't defend their claim they probably don't understand it (copy/pasting a claim is much easier than actually being competent /lol).

Also check the sites they claim to have made. If they actually built them, they can change the development copy for you in real time.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

Autism and "thinking differently" from a positive, creative perspective.

 

[Ken]

"Outside the box" is what made my career. I have always struggled to understand the "standard method", which has made life very difficult. I finally realized (upon discovering my autism) that I do not perceive the universe in a "standard" way. The standard way just makes no sense to me, which often made me look and feel like an idiot.

I guess, just by luck, I ended up in a job where the owner was impressed with my "out of the box" creations. He called it innovation.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

Change and new ideas are mostly good for us, and I say this even if it creates a conversation, conflict, and fails. This is how wisdom is gained. There are only few things in our human experience that are better off left alone. Most of the time, we could do better. Innovation, new ways to do things, new perspectives, etc.,...once "the dust settles",...is often for the better and moves humanity forward. I am of the mind that it is those innovative "out-of-the-box" thinkers who can push through the resistance of "sameness" that do the most good in the world. You just have to have the courage, confidence, and perseverance to keep at it. Right now, we are in a moment in history where there is a tremendous amount of innovation and disruptive technologies, and if we do this right, we could very well be living in an era of "excess" and prosperity. We have to be aware of how it could go badly, keep those thoughts, but push forward with cautious optimism of all the good that could come.

 

[Judge]

A few years ago I had to collect a few new staff for graphic and website design,
Shifting through portfolio of websites done they all followed latest trends and looked the same and as true as Bob each one had stated creative thinker and out of the box.
Is this just a cliche' that people use on their CV?

Bad form to even use a cliché in a résumé. Particularly if their actual online portfolio doesn't stand up to such claims in a formal job interview. Where the bulk of the interview may just involve a potential boss looking directly at your work through their monitor. Which in my case made it the best job interview I ever had.

As a website designer around the turn of the century, I never considered using such cliches in my résumé. Despite being able to create unique, metaphorical website interfaces combined with low bandwidth considerations for well-known computer game products. Incorporating a game's actual interface and graphics into whatever website I was designing. I let my actual work do all the talking in this respect.

Funny to think how considerations of low-bandwidth translated into life or death for many website designers back then. Now it means nothing when everyone has a broadband connection. But back then, if it took more than ten or fifteen seconds for your site to boot up, you were a lost cause to most employers. Worse perhaps for employers back then who might run your code through a validator. Whether you thought "out of the box" or not.

 

[Dagan]

People are using AI to write resumes, now, so it's going to either get worse or hilarious.

 

[Au Naturel]

each one had stated creative thinker and out of the box.

I think that is almost mandatory in a resume. At the same time, they have to demonstrate they are faithful to the current fashion. I think resumes are all done with AI these days, anyhow. There are standard boxes for people who claim they think outside the box but still want to belong.

There are many possible boxes to think inside of. To think outside of one box usually just means thinking inside a competing box. Wonder which box they are thinking outside of? Thinking outside of any box is just incoherence.

 

[Jumpinbare]

I use cutting edge technology in order to cut through the box, then I think outside it.

 

[Judge]

People are using AI to write resumes, now, so it's going to either get worse or hilarious.

Pretty much.

Imagine an employer filtering out all such resumes, much like a teacher or professor tossing out disturbingly familiar term papers loaded with all too similar clichés. Would be hilarious to see such technology creating enormous bottlenecks in the employment process across the entire economy. Then again we may be already there....lol.

I suppose such considerations also depend on just how monolithic or not AI actually becomes. Imagine it all merging into a single mind. Sounds like something Microsoft or Google would drool over.

Though as a former website designer I do have to chuckle at the prospect of someone submitting samples of their online work that turn out to be identical to that of another applicant. Oops.

 

[Jumpinbare]

Pretty much.

Imagine an employer filtering out all such resumes, much like a teacher or professor tossing out disturbing familiar term papers.

One of the guys I used to regularly skydive with was an English professor at a local college. While climbing to altitude in the plane, there's really not much to do, so he used to take student papers in the plane, read and grade them during this time. Just before the door was opened for us to jump, he would put the papers in a zipper folder he had, and hand them to the pilot for safekeeping.

One day on the way up, he poked me and showed me the current paper he was grading. He had penned a note in the margin in red. As he handed me the paper, he pointed out a particular paragraph. The paragraph said something to the effect that "I'm thirsty, so I'm going to the refrigerator for a soda. Ah, that's good! Really needed something wet. I don't know why I'm actually bothering to write this paper anyway. There's no way anyone is actually going to read it."
In the margin, the professor had written "I am reading this in a plane on my way up to 8,500 feet to make a skydive."

 

[Judge]

One of the guys I used to regularly skydive with was an English professor at a local college. While climbing to altitude in the plane, there's really not much to do, so he used to take student papers in the plane, read and grade them during this time. Just before the door was opened for us to jump, he would put the papers in a zipper folder he had, and hand them to the pilot for safekeeping.

One day on the way up, he poked me and showed me the current paper he was grading. He had penned a note in the margin in red. As he handed me the paper, he pointed out a particular paragraph. The paragraph said something to the effect that "I'm thirsty, so I'm going to the refrigerator for a soda. Ah, that's good! Really needed something wet. I don't know why I'm actually bothering to write this paper anyway. There's no way anyone is actually going to read it."
In the margin, the professor had written "I am reading this in a plane on my way up to 8,500 feet to make a skydive."

Might have been even funnier had the instructor lost all the papers out the door of the aircraft. Imagine explaining that to a bunch of kids who would normally tell him that the dog ate their homework. Awkward!

But seriously I doubt that cheating to get ahead in class (any class) is ever going to stop anytime soon, regardless of technological advances. Reminds me of how professors would give instructions to begin their exam by telling them to invert their bluebooks, and begin on the second line of the second page. That was about 45 years ago.

 

[MildredHubble]

I never understood "In Box" thinking. I mean, it's in a box, boxes are mostly opaque. Being a person who doesn't poses X-ray vision, I prefer thinking that takes place entirely outside of boxes.

 

[Kayla55]

Pretty much.

Imagine an employer filtering out all such resumes, much like a teacher or professor tossing out disturbingly familiar term papers loaded with all too similar clichés. Would be hilarious to see such technology creating enormous bottlenecks in the employment process across the entire economy. Then again we may be already there....lol.

I suppose such considerations also depend on just how monolithic or not AI actually becomes. Imagine it all merging into a single mind. Sounds like something Microsoft or Google would drool over.

Though as a former website designer I do have to chuckle at the prospect of someone submitting samples of their online work that turn out to be identical to that of another applicant. Oops.

Ye, but example slider control became popular on websites...so design is actually an embedded control, it's a fad...everyone wants a slider site??

I suppose I'm blunt but I'd better describe these applicants as keeping up with technology trends maybe even implementing as such. So anyone can market current trends and I suppose your consultant is more people's person than creative or unique mindset.
Not sure why people have trouble just saying things the way they are

 

[Dagan]

If an employer ever said that I was the type to play with fire. I would likely reply that, that's why I think outside the box...because I burnt it down.

 

[AuAL]

Imagine an employer filtering out all such resumes, much like a teacher or professor tossing out disturbingly familiar term papers loaded with all too similar clichés. Would be hilarious to see such technology creating enormous bottlenecks in the employment process across the entire economy. Then again we may be already there....lol.

Imagine an employer using AI to filter out all resumes generated by AI.

 

[Aspychata]

I should have used AI to filter my boyfriends. I need to make a site with a bunch of questions to tell you the percentage of your choice of potential date being a complete failure.