What is lateral thinking?

A talking purple apricot will explain.

Purple Apricots. Photo by Ilona Frey on Unsplash Tinted by the author.

Lateral means from the sides or across.

In the context of thinking, approaching a problem “from the sides” is to approach it indirectly. Think of this as a different approach to linear thinking.

Linear Thinking

Let’s take an example of linear thinking that Medium readers and writers will be familiar with.

To be a successful writer on Medium one should read articles about being a successful writer on Medium.

Assuming most new writers want to be successful, these articles become popular.

As these aricles become popular, being popular involves writing about being successful on Medium.

While this is perfectly logical, anyone familiar with the deluge of such articles will start to appreciate the problem. The solution is uncreative and like any pyramid scheme, once the supply of new readers runs out, the approach collapses.

Still, as only 8% of writers on Medium may be considered “successful” it could be a long time before this happens.

So, the key criticism of this approach is that it is uncreative and ultimately, uninteresting.