Problem Solving by Lateral Thinking

1. What can you hold in your right hand, but not in your left?
Your left hand, forearm or elbow.

2. How many animals of each species did Moses take into the Ark?
None. NOAH built the Ark

3. A man built a rectangular house, each side having a southern view. He spotted a bear. What color was the bear?
White, because it’s a polar bear. Only at the North Pole can all four walls be facing south.

4. Two fathers took their sons fishing. Each man and son caught one fish, but when they returned to camp there were only 3 fish. How could this be? (None of the fish were eaten, lost, or thrown back.)
There were only three people. The son, his father, and his grandfather.

5. If you were alone in a deserted house at night, and there was an oil lantern, a candle, a lamp and a matchbox with only one match stick, which would you, light first?
The match stick!

6. A graduate applying for pilot training with a major airline was asked what would be his reaction, if after a long-haul flight to Sidney, he saw the captain wearing a Saree and applying lipstick and mascara?
His reaction should be indifferent. The captain was a woman. Many airlines are now hot on equal opportunities and a candidate who has difficulty envisaging that an airline captain might be female will not go very far!

7. Which side of a cat contains the most hair?
The outside

8. The 1st and 4th CEO of a MNC had the same mother and father, but were not brothers. How can this be possible?
The 1st and 4th CEO is the same person

9. A Black man is wearing Black shoes, socks, trousers, coat, gloves and ski mask. He is walking down a back street with all the street lamps off. A black car is coming towards him with its light off but somehow manages to stop in time. How did the driver see the man?
It was day time

10. How many birthdays does a typical woman have?
One

11. A peasant is convicted and gets the death penalty. The judge allows him to say a last sentence in order to determine the way the penalty will be carried out. If what the peasant says is false, he will be hanged, if he speaks the truth he will be beheaded. The peasant speaks a last sentence and to everybody surprises some minutes later he is set free because the judge cannot determine his penalty.
What did the peasant said?
The peasant said: “I shall be hanged!”
If what the peasant said was false, he would be hanged. But that’s what the peasant was saying. So he speaks the truth. But if he speaks the truth, he would be beheaded, so then he was not speaking the truth. So it is impossible for the judge to determine whether the peasant speaks the truth or not. So therefore the judge cannot determine the penalty and sets the peasant free.

12. Why it is illicit to bury a man in Bihar, if he is living in kolkata.
Because he is still alive.

13. To the nearest cubic centimeter, how much soil is there in a 5m x 3m x 2m hole?
None - it’s a hole!

14. If you drove a coach leaving Esplanade with 35 passengers, dropped off 6 and picked up 2 at Central, picked up 9 more at M.G.Road, dropped off 3 at Maniktala,and then drove on to arrive in Kankurgachi 1 hr 40 minutes later, what is the name of the driver ?YOU are the driver!

15. A woman lives on the tenth floor of a block of flats. Every morning she takes the lift down to the ground floor and goes to work. In the evening, she gets into the lift, and, if there is someone else in the lift she goes back to her floor directly. Otherwise, she goes to the eighth floor and walks up two flights of stairs to her flat. How do you explain this?
The woman is of small stature and couldn’t reach the upper lift buttons

My Brainchild FireUp.co.in covered by Dainik Bhaskar (Business Bhaskar)

FireUp is widely accepted as the best Online CAT Preparation portal. The same is supported by India’s most selling Hindi daily, Dainik Bhaskar in the given article. FireUp equips students to face the challenges thrown by the computerization of CAT (it is going online from 2009!!)

http://businessbhaskar.com/article.php?id=14774

ऑनलाइन कैट को भुनाने के लिए नए उद्यमी मैदान में
Source: अजीत सिंह नई दिल्ल

नामी मैनेजमेंट संस्थानों इंडियन इंस्टिट्यूट ऑफ मैनेजमेंट की प्रवेश परीक्षा संयुक्त प्रवेश परीक्षा (कैट) के ऑनलाइन होने के बाद कोचिंग कारोबार में खासी हलचल है। कैट कोचिंग कराने वाले स्थापित इंस्टीट्यूट जहां ऑनलाइन टेस्ट के लिहाज से कोचिंग की तैयारी में जुट गए हैं, वहीं कई नए उद्यमी ऑनलाइन कोचिंग के कारोबार में हाथ आजमाने उतर पड़े हैं। इन कारोबारियों में आईआईएम के कई पुराने छात्र हैं जो ऑनलाइन होने के बाद कैट की कोचिंग में व्यापक बदलाव का अंदाजा लगाकर वेबसाइट के जरिए कोचिंग की पेशकश कर रहे हैं।

फिलहाल, ऑनलाइन कैट की तैयारी कराने जो संस्थान सामने आए हैं उनमें फायरअप, टेस्टफंडा और टेनएडे आदि प्रमुख हैं। आईआईएम अहमदाबाद के चार ग्रेजुएट पिछले एक साल से टेनएडेडॉटसीओडॉटइन वेबसाइट के जरिए ऑनलाइन कैट की तैयारी करवा रहे हैं। कैट परीक्षा के ऑनलाइन होने का करीब सालभर से इंतजार कर रहे ये चारों विनीता सिंह, भूषण, विशाल और देबाशीष आईआईएम से निकलने के बाद नौकरी ठुकराने और अंतर्वस्त्रों का कारोबार शुरू करने को लेकर सुर्खियों में रहे थे। इस कारोबार के न चलने पर इन लोगों ने ऑनलाइन कोचिंग कारोबार में हाथ आजमाया।

एमबीए से जुड़े छात्रों की सोशल नेटवर्किग साइट पागलगायडॉटकॉम के संपादक अपूर्व पंडित का कहना है कि ऑनलाइन होने के बाद कैट के कोचिंग कारोबार में खासी हलचल है। कई नए उद्यमी भी इस बदलाव से काफी उत्साहित हैं। ऑनलाइन कैट से जुड़े कई वेंचर सामने आ रहे हैं। पंडित के मुताबिक, फिलहाल टेस्टफंडाडॉटकॉम ऑनलाइन कैट की तैयारी कराने वाली वेबसाइटों में प्रमुख है। इस साइट को चलाने वाली कंपनी एनॉबीलन र्ल्िनग प्राइवेट लिमिटेड ऑनलाइन और ई-कंटेंट के क्षेत्र में स्थापित कंपनी है।

कैट के कोचिंग कारोबार में हाथ आजमाने वाले नए खिलाड़ियों में आईआईएम इंदौर के पूर्व छात्र विनीत पटवारी भी शामिल हैं। कैट के ऑनलाइन होने की संभावना को देखते हुए पटवारी ने फायरअप नाम से ऑनलाइन कोचिंग देने वाली वेबसाइट की शुरुआत की है। कोलकाता से चलने वाली यह वेबसाइट गत दिसंबर में लांच की गई थी। गौरतलब है कि हर साल करीब 2.5 लाख छात्र दुनिया में नामी इंडियन इंस्टीट्यूट ऑफ मैनेजमेंट और देश के अव्वल दर्जे के करीब 100 अन्य संस्थानों की इस प्रवेश परीक्षा में शामिल होते हैं। कैट के कोचिंग कारोबार के जरिए करियर लांचर जैसी कंपनियां शिक्षा क्षेत्र में काफी बड़ा नाम बन चुकी है।

देशभर में 100 से ज्यादा सेंटर चलाने वाली करियर लांचर के अलावा आईएमएस, टाइम और प्रोफेशनल-ट्यूटोरियल्स इस क्षेत्र की प्रमुख कंपनियां है जो एमबीए की कोचिंग से ही सालाना 10 से 15 करोड़ रुपये का कारोबार करती हैं। इन नए खिलाड़ियों की कोशिश भी आईआईएम बंगलुरू के छात्र रहे करियर लांचर के चेयरमैन सत्य नारायणन की कहानी दोहराने की है। आईएमएस नोएडा के सेंटर हेड लव जैन मानते हैं कि ऑनलाइन होने के बाद कोचिंग के तरीके और मार्केट में काफी बदलाव आएगा। जैन मानते हैं कि इस बदलाव के बावजूद इस साल कोचिंग फीस में विशेष बढ़ोतरी की उम्मीद नहीं है।

Lateral Thinking

On visitors demand I am starting to post content on various topics which will be of great help for honing mind skills and for self improvement. I am sure this articles will readers to improve their IQ and ignite their intellectual apetite for more such stuff.

These articles will be a combination of my original and researched work.

LATERAL THINKING

Lateral thinking is an idea generation and problem solving technique in which new concepts are created by looking at things in novel ways. The term was coined by Dr. Edward de Bono in his 1970 book ‘Lateral Thinking.’

“You cannot look in a new direction by looking harder in the same direction” – Edward de Bono

Methods that to bring about lateral thinking

There are a number of mental tools or methods that can be used to bring about lateral thinking. These include the following-

Random Entry: Choose an object at random, and associate that with the area you are thinking about. This is also called the method of focal objects.

For example imagine you are thinking about how to improve fireup.co.in. Choose an object at random from your room, you might see a spectacle. Spectacle helps to see things clearly. Perhaps this makes you think of embedding sound software that would readout the concepts and other website materials which would be a great help for visually impaired students.

Provocation: Provocation provokes us to look at things not as they are but as what they might be. We must change our perception in order to change directions and seek alternative solutions and questions “what if”, “suppose” “what would happen…?” etc.. Make an idea that may not be direct solution to the problem but which moves thinking forward to a new place from where new ideas or solutions may be found.

Challenge: Simply challenge the way things have always been done or seen, or the way they are. This is done not to show there is anything wrong with the existing situation but simply to direct your perceptions to exploring outside the current area.

For example you could challenge coffee cups being produced with a handle. There is nothing wrong with coffee cups having handles so the challenge is a direction to explore without defending the status quo. The reason for the handle seems to be that the cup is often too hot to hold directly. Perhaps coffee cups could be made with insulated finger grips, or there could be separate coffee cup holders similar to beer holders.

Real life examples of lateral thinking

A graduate had been trying to get into IT Sector, but without success and had exhausted all the normal routes. As a last resort, he had 100 CVs printed. He then went round the “Sector V”, where all the main IT companies in Kolkata are located and proceeded to place one of these CVs under the windscreen of every Honda City and top of the range BMW and Mercedes he came across.

What happened next day? Yes! You guessed it right. Next day, he had several phone calls offering him interviews from the senior executives whom the cars belonged to.

This question was asked to a candidate in a top MNC to elicit his true perception

Q - A man and his son are in a car crash. The man is killed and the son is taken to hospital gravely injured. When he gets there, the surgeon says “I can’t operate on this boy- he is my son!” How is this possible? [Surgeon is telling the truth, the boy don't have two fathers and he has no look alike]

This is an example of a quick assumption blocking the mind’s ability to explore alternatives. In this case the assumption is that the quintessential doctor is a male. If a candidate change his perception to allow for a female surgeon, then the answer is suddenly obvious, the surgeon is the boy’s mother.