[akamoonknight]

I don't know a word or phrase for this, but I really enjoy any examples of "thinking outside the box" like this because it's something I struggle with in my professional career. Learning not only the right ways to solve problems, but figuring out the questions to ask that make solving the problems you have easier or even in some cases possible. In this case, it's hey, we don't need exact numbers if we can define a probabilistic range given defined parameters. Other problems are gonna have other questions. I guess my hope is that if I see enough examples I'll be able to eventually internalize the thought process and apply it correctly.

[dentemple]

To be fair, this was a university research team. Literally, a team of folks who can, all day everyday, iterate over a single topic using the Scientific Method.

If you were paid by a big company to sit at a whiteboard all day with a team of equally intelligent engineers, I'm sure you'd be come up with SOMETHING that would look like an "outside the box" solution to the rest of the world.

However, most of us are paid to work the JIRA factory line instead, which limits the amount of time we can spend experimenting on just one single problem.

[wmwragg]

I think it's generally thought of as "lateral thinking", Edward de Bono has written a few books about it you might find interesting.

[coldtea]

And some more commonplace words like "creativity" (as in "creative solution") etc. would apply.

[bzuker]

any particular one you'd recommend?

[wmwragg]

I think the classic is "Lateral Thinking: A Textbook of Creativity"