If you are at the amusement park, preparing to get on a ride, and the operator says, “It will bring the kid in you out,” a set of expectations has been created. However, if an obstetrician says the same thing to a woman in labor, it means a completely different thing.
Life is full of ambiguity and it requires context to determine its meaning. Creativity often comes from the ability to take things out of context. The first person to look at a clam and think it could be food had this ability. The guy who looked at a sheep’s intestine and thought it could be a guitar string also had this ability. The first gasoline carburetor was the result of a guy seeing his wife apply perfume with a vaporizer.
Have you ever used a lighter to open a beer bottle or a big dictionary as a booster seat? We can become more creative by taking things out of context.
In what different context can you imagine your ideas?
