How to Improve Your Lateral Thinking Skills

When it comes to making it as an inventor, creator, or entrepreneur, lateral thinking is an
invaluable skill. In fact, most of the time you simply cannot do without it. The best ideas
come from thinking outside the box and it is a skill that doesn’t always come easily.
However, whilst it might not come easily to everyone, it is possible to get better with
practice. If you’d like to become a better lateral thinker then these are some tips that can
help.

Solving Riddles

One of the most well-known examples of lateral thinking practice is solving riddles. These questions often appear simple, but have a more complex answer that will call on your understanding of language and logic. Some of the most famous involve the riddle about the lightbulbs.

There are three lightbulbs in a room and three switches on the outside. You need to find out which switch works for which lightbulb, but there is a catch. The room has no windows, just a door, which you may open only once. You can switch the switches as often as you like. How do you find out which switch connects to which bulb? If you want to work out the answer yourself, then stop reading now! The answer is to switch one switch on for a minute or so, long enough to warm the bulb, then turn that switch off and turn on the one next to it, now open the door. Inside you’ll find a light that is switched on, which will correspond to the switch you’ve turned on, a light that is off and warm which corresponds to the one you turned on for a minute, and a final light that is off and cold, the one you didn’t touch.

Working out this puzzle requires us to think carefully about the other effects that turning a light on has, the creation of heat. Thinking around a subject like this is the very definition of lateral thinking. If you want to increase your creative thinking, then solving riddles is a must.

Learning a New Card Game

If you want to further the creative thinking skills that you picked up during your riddle practice then there’s another fun way to do it. Picking up a card game can be a good way to speed up these skills. Quickfire games such as poker and blackjack are perfect for those wanting to exercise their new skills under pressure and they’re both easy to learn. At pokernews.com there are plenty of tips for beginners. Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the rules, the best way to learn is to practice.

Finding friends to play with in real life is the best sort of practice, as you can begin to learn to read their faces. Looking for people’s tells is another form of lateral thinking, as you need to work out whether they’re doing them involuntarily, telling the truth, or doing them on purpose, bluffing. Once you begin to master your card game of choice, you’ll see guaranteed results.

Thinking About Things From Unexpected Angles

There’s a well-known idea that all of the stories in the whole world have one of six basic plots. This is an interesting fact, but how will it help with lateral thinking? If you’re faced with a real-life scenario in which you think lateral thinking will help, then reframing the story using a different narrative can help you reach unusual conclusions. Storytelling in this way is a key skill for those who are hoping to learn to look at the world in a different kind of way.