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Think outside the box

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Photo of a cat sitting on a box
To think outside the box means to think in a creative or unusual way instead of following the usual rules or ideas.

The phrase became popular in the late 1900s and is often linked to a puzzle where people must connect nine dots arranged in a square without lifting a pencil. The solution requires drawing lines that go outside the imagined box around the dots.

The team had to think outside the box to find a solution to the design problem.