Week 6: Lateral Thinking - Reflection

   Lateral Thinking is a problem solving method whereby one solves a problem through an indirect and creative approach and use reasoning that is not obvious and involve ideas that may be obtainable by using only traditional step-by-step logic.

   Through lateral thinking one thinks outside the box and increase their ability to think creatively, discarding the obvious and leaving behind traditional modes of thought and preconceptions. They are inspired to use their imagination to solve problems by looking at them from unexpected or different perspectives and come up with new solutions/patterns.

   An example of lateral thinking would be the story of The Bird and The Pitcher. In this story, the bird's beak was too short for him to access the water in a pitcher, so it got some rocks to fill the pitcher, causing the water level to rise, enabling it to drink the water.

   I feel that lateral thinking needs to be practiced and trained.
 
 At the start of the lesson, my teacher gave us a few riddles. Howerer I did not look past the obvious and could not think of the right answer at first, as we progressed, I was able to apply lateral thinking and could come up with the solutions, faster after each attempt.

   These are the questions my teacher gave us:

   1. If you were alone in a deserted house at night, and there are an oil lamp, a candle and firewood and you only have one match, which would you light first?
Answer: The Match



   I forgot that the first thing you had to light was the match as I was too concentrated on the other items listed in the question.


   2.

 

   

   This is the solution.
    It thinks out of the box and rearranged the position of the dots.

  I came up with this as the question did not say that you had to ONLY use straight lines.

    I came up with this as the question did not say that we couldn't overlap the lines

3.

 





   By the third exercise, I was able to quickly
come up with the solution. I was very happy when I was able to solve it. After going through a few of these riddles, my brain had practiced lateral thinking and i was able to imagine and visualise the solution
4.

   Subsequently, the 4th exercise came by as a breeze and I solved it faster than the previous one. Through lateral thinking, I was able picture how the outcome would be like and also the process reaching the outcome.



Reflection:
   I think lateral thinking is a useful and important skill for everyone to have. It enables us to see the world in a different light and generate more creativity among us.