I read this description about where the "out of the box" phrase originated: "The phrase 'out of the box' actually dates from anti-Jewish persecutions in the Holy Roman Empire during the thirteenth century, in which Jews were placed in boxes and thrown in the Danube, and only the truly clever ones could find ways to think themselves 'out of the box.' It was in "The Big Book of Jewish Conspiracies" by Duetsch and Neuman. I think it must have been a farce because everything else says the phrase is from the nine dots puzzle. Thoughts?
Ingenious but almost certainly false, I'd say. Does it give more information on the persecutions? Putting each Jew in a box and throwing them in the Danube seems an expensive way of going about genocide to me.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
I was in the training business when the expression "think outside the box" became common and those of us who used the 9-dots puzzle all believed that this is where it came from.
In fact, even now many people use the expression without being aware of the puzzle origin and when I use it I am always surprised by how few delegates get it right, even when I exhort them to "think outside the box".
Incidentally, for those who know the way of linking the nine dots with four lines, try linking them with three. And when you've done that, with just one! It is possible.
Richard English
Posts: 8038 | Location: Partridge Green, West Sussex, UK
To me, there is a difference between out of the box, an application or device that can be used without substantial configuration or assembly, and (to think) outside the box, which means to ignore self-imposed constraints (the box) when solving a problem. I'd say that both expressions are from the last half of the previous century and have little to do with medieval persecution of Jews.
Yes, I think you are right. Since the book was making fun of many of the Jewish conspiracies, my daughter and I think that was a part of their humor. Strange.
