Lateral Thinking

Definition: Lateral Thinking is a creative, fresh deliberate abductive reasoning approach to problem solving and to thinking in general by approaching problems indirectly at multiple, diverse and unorthodox angles instead of concentrating on one approach at length.
Trying harder in the same direction using the same approach is less useful as changing the direction and/or the approach.
LT is about reasoning that is not immediately obvious and about ideas that may not be obtainable by using only traditional step-by-step logic (comparable to Integrative Thinking).
LT is similar to Out of the Box Thinking, but is - according to its inventor Edward de Bono - more deliberate.

More on lateral thinking. More on reasoning: Abduction, Abstraction, Analogy, Argumenting, Deduction, more...