There's nothing wrong with the tag. The problem is with the puzzles.
This one line from Gareth's answer (which you definitely should go read) is, I think, the heart of the matter, and motivated me to write this followup to it.
Tags are typically used in two ways:
- Help searchers find a type of puzzle
- Help setters drop additional information to solvers about how a puzzle works
The lateral-thinking tag can, and should, be useful for both of those.
The whole premise of a "lateral-thinking" puzzle is that it's a "puzzle solved through an indirect and creative approach, using reasoning that is not immediately obvious and involving ideas that may not be obtainable only using logic." In other words, think outside the box, because the clues are all there, but it's going to take an unobvious or unexpected way of thinking about the problem to connect them together to get the answer. These kinds of puzzles certainly can be very interesting and clever—and if I was looking for an example of a puzzle that requires creative, outside-the-box thinking, searching for them via the tag is probably the only practical way.
A puzzle setter should also be able to indicate to the solvers that the puzzle requires some lateral thinking to solve. While it's true that tags ideally would be only metadata used to categorize puzzles, they often serve a dual purpose by also being part of the puzzle, at least in that they act as a hint about how the puzzle works. The "lateral-thinking" tag is a very useful signpost to solvers that they need to think outside the box, without the setter having to state it explicitly in the puzzle body. And as I pointed out elsewhere, we often even leverage the lack of this tag to purge answers that try to use (wildly) lateral approaches to "solve" a problem—in other words, by default we assume lateral thinking is not intended, and the tag is then actually necessary to indicate when it is.
So let's not punish the tag just because it attracts bad puzzles.
The tag wiki actually points out the (minimal) requirement for a lateral-thinking puzzle to be at all successful:
When writing a lateral thinking puzzle (this goes for all puzzles on the site, but especially for this genre), one must take care to compose it in such a way that there is a unique correct answer, otherwise the question is likely to be closed as "too broad".
$\hspace{60ex}$(emphasis in original)
... and therein lies the problem. As Gareth pointed out, lateral thinking puzzles (for some reason) seem to attract puzzle setters whose track record here suggests are, well, inexperienced at puzzle setting. The lateral-thinking tag is quite literally—by design, and of necessity—an invitation to the solver to try all kinds of things and see what might stick. The problem is that people can be quite inventive and find all kinds of stuff that, arguably, solves the puzzle. Here far more than anywhere else, it is vital that the puzzle be composed to preclude all other reasonable* answers but the one intended.... and if it seems that the tag tends to attract mainly inexperienced puzzle setters, it's no wonder their puzzles fail to do just that. They end up, as the tag wiki warns up front, being "too broad" and should be closed.
But it's not like good lateral-thinking puzzles don't, let alone can't, exist. The Sheikh dies is a good example of a lateral thinking puzzle, and its accepted answer is a good example of applied lateral thinking. Make all the statements true is also a well constructed, if simple, lateral thinking puzzle—when you see the right answer you know it is the right answer.
Unfortunately, good examples are somewhat hard to find. Some of the highest rated puzzles in the tag are probably not lateral-thinking at all: How can 64 = 65? is about applying the math rigorously, and not at all about lateral thinking; Find the letters that complete these five patterns and Which country is INDIA in? are more pattern recognition/steganography; and Doorknob's "Wrap-up" answer to This is it. This is the one. Find your wife admits that "I didn't know [steganography] existed when I made this."
And the very highest rated puzzle in the tag, A double-agent with a conundrum, has an accepted answer that does not even work, so while it is lateral-thinking, it's not a particularly satisfying puzzle.
Maybe what we need are some good examples of what works, and what totally doesn't—and why—so we have a resource to which we can refer people who want to try their hand at a lateral-thinking puzzle, to help them avoid the common pitfalls, narrow their puzzle's scope, and have a better chance at posting something that works: the "Lateral-Thinking Puzzles: What (Not) To Do" guide.
Any volunteers?
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* Reasonableness of answers is actually just a big a problem as the construction of the puzzle, if not more so, and is probably why people look on this tag topic dubiously. "Lateral thinking" should not be free license for the solver to arbitrarily relocate the puzzle to another planet, or decide the characters in the puzzle scenario are dead, or whatever. In a well constructed lateral-thinking puzzle, the right answer is one that uses what the puzzle gave you in a creative and unusual way, and does not—and probably must not—invent facts out of thin air to make a "solution" work. As I expressed it on a puzzle of my own, "lateral-thinking is not an excuse to indulge in wild flights of fancy; I can't close every loophole… and shouldn't have to".
THIS question is about the tag, a part of the puzzle postings themselves.
To read and/or contribute thoughts on the poor quality of answers to puzzles in the lateral-thinking tag, see: 'Lateral Thinking' is a poor excuse for a bad answer.
lateral-thinking
(Ps., my ^vote here indicates agreement that the tag could use morediscussion
, not necessarily banishment, and agreement that Sid's answer was the best.) $\endgroup$ – humn Sep 13 '17 at 19:31