原文：
A father is busy putting decorations on the Christmas tree, but as quickly as he puts them on his two-year-old son pulls them off. He is about to put the child in a play-pen when his wife suggests that it might make more sense to put the tree in the play-pen and leave the child outside. Instead of keeping the child away from the tree one can keep the tree away from the child. Lateral thinking involves moving sideways to look at things in a different way. Instead of fixing on one particular approach and then working forward from that the lateral thinker tries to find other approaches.
一位父親正忙于為圣誕樹張燈結(jié)彩韧骗，而他兩歲的兒子卻一直同速地摘除它們。他正想把這小淘氣包放進游戲欄內(nèi)零聚，而妻子則建議把圣誕樹放進游戲欄袍暴，小家伙留在欄外，也許這會更有意思隶症。與其讓孩子遠(yuǎn)離圣誕樹政模，還不如讓圣誕樹遠(yuǎn)離小家伙。橫向思考要求需要換很多角度來看待問題蚂会。與其一條道走到黑淋样，還不如像橫向思考這般，尋找其他不同的解決途徑颂龙。
You cannot dig a hole in a different place by digging the same hole deeper. A committee that is convinced that parking meters are the only way to control city parking will spend its time deciding what meters to use, where to put them and how to patrol them. A lateral thinker would look at other approaches: letting people park anywhere they liked so long as they left their headlights on; giving people licences which would allow them to park free in town only one day a week and so encouraging car sharing; visible licences that the motorist would pay for if he wanted to park anywhere in his town.
你不能指望給不同的情況习蓬，開同一種治病藥方。委員會被說服了認(rèn)可設(shè)置停車收費器是有效控制城市停車的唯一辦法措嵌，他們也將花時間決定選用什么樣的收費器躲叼，何處使用以及如何有效檢查他們。而橫向思考者則會看到其他的解決途徑：放任人們停在他們想停的位置企巢，只要他們一直亮著他們的車前燈枫慷；給人們發(fā)放駕照，且他們在城鎮(zhèn)里只能一周停放一天，并以此鼓勵他們互相分享車資源或听；可發(fā)放到手的駕照探孝，是指駕駛員想在他居住的城鎮(zhèn)任意停車時，就得花錢購買的誉裆。
參考譯文：
父親忙著往圣誕樹上掛裝飾品顿颅，剛掛上，兩歲的兒子就給扯了下來足丢。他正要把孩子放進游戲圍欄里粱腻， 他的妻子卻建議說，也許圣誕樹放在圍欄里而孩子在外面更好些斩跌。不讓孩子靠近樹绍些，倒不如把樹放到孩子夠不著的地方。橫向思維就是從側(cè)面換個角度看問題耀鸦。進行這種思維的人不是把注意力固定子啊某一方向上并進行行動而是試試是否還有其他方法柬批。
你把洞挖的再深也不等于你另挖一個洞。如果有一個委員會確信只有使用停車計時器才能控制市內(nèi)存車袖订，那么它就會花時間去考慮使用何種計時器氮帐，計時器裝在何處以及如何檢查這些問題。橫向思維者則會考慮其它解決辦法著角，如只要人們打開車燈揪漩，他們愿把車停在哪兒都行旋恼；發(fā)給他們停車許可證吏口，允許他們一周只有一天可在城里免費停車，這樣可鼓勵人們合用車冰更；或是發(fā)行一種張貼于車窗上的許可證产徊，駕車人買了它就可以在城里任何地方停車。
