Out of the Box: The Origination and Form in Creativity

Abstract

This comment turns a critical eye on the popular dictum, “Think out of the box!” Given routinely as an end-all exhortation, this pronouncement misrepresents the true dynamics of creation, which is the dialectic process between the twin principles of origination and form. Referring to the relevant observations of many a creator in differing disciplines, I warn against the real danger of the originative potential being left as a mere promise without being fully realized into the culminating creation of worth.