Creativity :: Taboos

A taboo is an inhibition resulting from social customs or emotional aversion. Taboos serve a useful purpose to society because they prevent people from experiencing displeasure about something. However, taboos can cause people to ignore certain solutions to problems, even if they are very good. A popular example is to imagine a pipe stuck in the ground with a ping-pong ball in the bottom. How do you get the ping-pong ball out using a minimum of supplies and without damaging anything? The taboo answer, which is a very effective solution, is to pee into the pipe, thus floating the ball out. You may have thought of this answer in your own mind, but if you had been in a group of people you probably would not have verbalized it.Since taboos exist to protect other members of society, you do not need to censor yourself when you are working alone. You might not end up with a taboo solution, but sometimes you must work through incorrect or unacceptable solutions in order to reach a correct one.