Connect the Dots

We had to solve this puzzle in five minutes. It was where you had 3 dots in 3 rows. You had to connect the dots with four straight lines and you couldn't lift your pencil  off of the paper. You couldn't retrace any line, and the lines could cross if necessary. No one in the class could figure out the paper. No one was thinking outside the boundaries.

The reason no one thought outside the boundaries is because we're taught to stay within set boundaries; or at least that's why in my opinion. At a young age we are given rules, you could say "boundaries" that we aren't suppose to cross. If they aren't any boundaries set in front of us we make them on our own. Even though there wasn't a rule saying you could past the dots, the assumption was made that you couldn't. Since the focus on the problem was on the dots you would assume you can't go past said dots. But the ironic part is that you have to go past those "boundaries" to solve the problem.

This is the same concept as what is required from us when we work with someone as different. When we work with someone different we can see things the same way but we still have to except why they're different from us. Just like in this puzzle you have to except the fact that you have to think out of the box to solve it. When you're working with someone who's different from you have to put any differences aside to get the task done. In this puzzle you have to get past the fact that you can go outside of the "boundaries" to get the problem done. The problem is to connect all of the dots with four straight lines, by any means necessary. If you don't focus on just that then you won't solve the problem. Just like if you don't focus on the problem when you're working with someone different you won't get it done.

To me this puzzle can relate to point of view because of all the lines end up on the same point; or rather they have the same beginning. You have to start at one point and end at the next. Plus you have to use straight lines, which is like point of view because if you focus on one point in the room you can see the lines that come from that point. Same things with the connected dots, they all stem from the same one point. In this puzzle you start at the one point and that's how you make the four lines. At least that's my opinion of how they this can relate to point of view.

I can't think of another time where I had to think outside of the box to solve a problem. I'm not saying that this was the first time I've done a puzzle like this, but this is the most recent. This time was difficult, I put myself in a box. That's what we usually do and I played to the stereotype. The answer to this puzzle was really easy once you saw the answer. I enjoyed this puzzle and it can give many messages about open minded thinking.