5 Puzzles To Stimulate Creative Thinking

Most of the time we tend to think strictly logically and seek obvious answers to problems, even if creative solutions would be far more useful.

Creative thinking or lateral thinking was first introduced in the 90s by the psychologist Edward de Bono. In today’s society, this type of thinking is increasingly important, and schools are also trying to encourage it.

Most of the time, we tend to think strictly logically  and seek obvious answers to problems, even when creative solutions would be far more useful.

Logical thinking often does not find a way out of stress and fear, but original and creative thoughts are required in these situations.

Then we will introduce you to 5 puzzles that you will surely enjoy. At the same time, these puzzles can help you see things from a different perspective. Do you dare to stimulate your creative thinking ?

First steps: Develop creative thinking or thinking outside the box

Before you face our puzzles, we give you a number of strategies that are guaranteed to give you a basis for solving the puzzles. These are pillars that define  creative thinking and whose practical implementation is worthwhile in everyday life.

• Life is made up of small and big problems. Sometimes they are so absurd that we don’t know how to approach them. To do this, we need to replace logic with creative thinking. In everyday life “two and two don’t always have to be four”. People are a kind of chaos of feelings and desires, … This is how you start to see things from different perspectives without giving too much importance to logical thinking.

• Develop your imagination, take your chances, and then notice things that your eyes don’t see. Imagine several possibilities, invent situations, evaluate things, compare them and then imagine them differently. Don’t just stick to one option.
• Put your prejudices aside, show your inner child, and then challenge yourself. Dare to be original without being afraid of what is being said about you.
• Forget about drawers and clichés.
• The information you have is irrelevant, it’s just tiny traces to which you add your own assumptions, imaginative ideas, and intuition. Let your gut instinct guide you, be open to everything and don’t be afraid of making mistakes.
• The goal is to avoid the most obvious and logical solutions afterwards. Original and imaginative contributions to the problem at hand are best!

Puzzle 1: parking lot

You will be surprised to find this puzzle used by Chinese educational institutions in their elementary school entrance exams.

And you know what? 6 year old kids solve it in seconds because they are able to think creatively. The older, the more complicated these puzzles seem, since we usually start from a logical point of view.

Do you dare? The question is: In which parking space is the car parked in the illustration?

Puzzle 2: the hat and the carrot

Let’s take another situation. Imagine reaching a relative’s house after a long drive. You park the car, take your jacket with you to warm yourself, look to the right and see something strange in the front yard.

What is a carrot and a hat doing there ? You can’t understand Thank you carefully for 2 minutes. Do you see the solution to the problem?

Puzzle 3: the man in the bar

You are now in a bar. A man comes in to ask the bartender for a glass of water. He looks at him for a few seconds, then bends down and takes out something that was hidden under the bar: it’s a weapon.

He loads it and aims directly at the face of the man who asked him about the water.

As soon as the waiter aims at the man, he takes a deep breath, thanks him and leaves. What happened?

Puzzle 4: A man died in the field

We are in a field, a desolate place where a man’s body lies. There is a closed box next to it. Think for 2 minutes what might have happened and remind yourself to be as creative as possible.

Puzzle 5: the lonely man

Now we meet a person. He lives alone, isolated from society. He almost never receives visits, but one day he makes a mistake.

Without paying attention, he turns off all the lights in the house and when he turns them on again, he is shocked to see that 90 people have been killed. Then he starts crying heartbroken because he is the only one to blame for this disaster.

What happened?

SOLUTIONS

• Puzzle 1: The number of the parking space is 87. You have to look at it from the side from which you would then actually park your car.
• Riddle 2: It’s the carrot and the hat of a melted snowman.
• Puzzle 3: The man who asked for water suffered from hiccups. The waiter wanted to help him by frightening him.

• Puzzle 4: The man jumped out of an airplane and in the box next to him is the unopened parachute.
• Puzzle 5: The man works in a lighthouse. After switching off the light, a ship runs aground on the rock.