Most people do think alike

Swami Gulagulaananda said:
"I definitely know what you are thinking..."

When I used to hear the term "Out of the box" and many similar terms, I used to immediately dismiss them as management jargon. I still believe that most people who do use these terms are using it just because it has a nice ring to it - not because they truly understand it. The truth is, however, that very few people actually think very differently.

I'll give you a simple example. This is a trick I learnt ages ago, from whom, I remember not. But go ahead and try this on others, and you will find this to be true. Now I am going to perform this trick with you, so play along, ok? Here goes...

• Think of a number between 1 and 9
• Multiply that number by 9
• Add the digits of the two digit number that you got.
• Now that you have a single digit, subtract 5 from it
• If the answer is 1, letter is 'A'. If the answer is 2, letter is 'B'. If the answer is 3, letter is 'C' and so on... So corresponding to your answer, you should get a letter.
• With that letter, think of a country.
• With the last letter of that country, think of an animal.
• With the last letter of that animal, think of a fruit...

The fruit that you thought of, was 'orange', wasn't it? Stop grinning sheepishly... :P And animal was Kangaroo, and the country was Denmark. Sure, now you will try to decipher the secret. If you didn't think of orange, you are truly different (and weird, most likely :P)

Most people get conditioned by their surroundings, and therefore tend to think alike. This is absolutely true when you are thinking of various strategies - take games or any other thing. Whatever idea you have, it's very likely that the other guy thinks very much like you. It's very very rare that there is a radically different thought process. Well, those people, I admit, are visionaries...