{"id":149,"date":"2012-07-29T19:07:11","date_gmt":"2012-07-29T18:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theinternetsheep.com\/blog\/?p=149"},"modified":"2012-07-29T19:12:20","modified_gmt":"2012-07-29T18:12:20","slug":"thinking-outside-the-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theinternetsheep.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/thinking-outside-the-box\/","title":{"rendered":"Thinking Outside The Box"},"content":{"rendered":"

I owe the inspiration to this one to the BOFH (Bastard Operator From Hell) \u2013 you can read the current episode here<\/a> \u2013 worth going through the archives if you haven\u2019t come across this before.<\/p>\n

Anyway, if you bother to read the comments, the wondrous phrase \u201cThinking outside the box\u201d comes up, largely with respect to project management. Now, if you have worked in IT for a while, this should make you laugh. Using the phrase \u201cthinking outside the box\u201d within IT is, to be blunt, a tautology. It is what the job is about. It is what we are paid for. The essence of the job is to find solutions for a problem, and this means finding solutions that are NOT obvious \u2013 choosing the obvious ones is easy.<\/p>\n

To put it another way, it\u2019s a bit like a Formula 1 driver selling themself as being able to \u201cdrive fast and not crash\u201d \u2013 it\u2019s the basic skill you expect them to use, that is, after all what you are paying them for, and if they can\u2019t do that bit, they may as well not bother.<\/p>\n

So, next time you hear someone tell you how important thinking outside the box is, remind them that that is the basic skill, and, maybe, if they think that sets them apart from all the others vying for your business, they are not as skilled as they think they are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I owe the inspiration to this one to the BOFH (Bastard Operator From Hell) \u2013 you can read the current episode here \u2013 worth going through the archives if you haven\u2019t come across this before. Anyway, if you bother to read the comments, the wondrous phrase \u201cThinking outside the box\u201d comes up, largely with respect […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[30,18,34],"class_list":["post-149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-information-technology","tag-business","tag-computers","tag-technology"],"yoast_head":"\nThinking Outside The Box - Random Baa's<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Thinking outside the box, project management and how to deal with charlatans\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theinternetsheep.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/thinking-outside-the-box\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thinking Outside The Box - Random Baa's\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Thinking outside the box, project management and how to deal with charlatans\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theinternetsheep.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/thinking-outside-the-box\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Random Baas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-07-29T18:07:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-07-29T18:12:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"The Internet Sheep\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"The Internet Sheep\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theinternetsheep.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/thinking-outside-the-box\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theinternetsheep.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/thinking-outside-the-box\/\",\"name\":\"Thinking Outside The Box - 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