Comments on: Creativity Loves Constraints

by: Develop Your Productivity Rhythm For Success : Instigator Blog

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 17:50:56 +0000

[…] Babies and young kids thrive when they have a routine. They feel more comfortable and safer knowing what to expect and when. A regular routine or schedule helps kids develop and succeed. Creativity loves constraints, after all. […]

by: Shazz

Tue, 17 Oct 2006 05:00:10 +0000

Hey Brandon,

Thanks for the feedback & I respect your POV. You certainly can’t waste significant cycles paying attention to ideas that don’t solve the problems or meet the opportunities on your doorstep. Too much opportunity cost.

However, what I was referring to is how long-term successful systems don’t rapidly toss out (what initially appear to be) bad ideas. They find a low-effort way of keeping them in the background (for quite a while) so that when situations change (many variations on the types of changes that can occur) these ideas can suddenly become part of a good solution. Portfolio theory does this, genetics does this, etc.

ON ANOTHER NOTE:
Redchurch has his own take on the power of creative constraints:
http://www.redchurch.com/quantum/category/creative-process/

by: Brandon Franklin

Sat, 14 Oct 2006 16:58:24 +0000

Shazz, you are mischaracterizing Marissa’s message regarding “morph don’t kill”. She specifically says that it’s only valid for ideas in which a group of people have become excited enough about them to make them into full-blown Projects, and that when a group of people care enough about something there must be “something to it”. That is NOT equivalent to your belief that no idea should ever be deleted. In fact, she specifically says that some ideas should be killed. I suggest you listen again to that section of her presentation.

by: JR

Sat, 14 Oct 2006 00:29:09 +0000

Hey Julius,

I hear ya. How could a movie with this many people, and this much budget have any constraints. Yet yet Return of the King had HUGE constraints. Mostly around getting access to Peter Jackson time - which was a very precious commodity.

Did you know that before viewing the world wide launch in Wellington Peter never actually sat through and saw the entire movie from beginning to end. Their deadlines were so tight, that Peter was adding more special effects shots, more edits, more music, more re-shots right up until the last minute.

If he didn’t have these constraints, him and his team would never have produced the master piece it became.

I love constraints!

by: Jerico2day

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 17:05:13 +0000

Just because a project has virtually unlimited money, doesn’t mean there are not constraints. I’m sure if they had an unlimited time to complete this movie, it may never had been completed.

by: Shazz

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 05:56:54 +0000

Clip works fine for me.
I’ve always thought the sign of a true creative (vs. a wannabe) is that they’ll take any challenge or constraint and thrive BECAUSE of it not IN SPITE of it. Met a few creatives and lots of wannabes who say stuff like “standards?” I can’t work with those standards … I need to be creative. ha.

Most important part of this clip is the MORPH DON’T KILL ideas section. I posted to CH on this a couple of months ago. Every system needs to keep its “current failures” kicking around and they’ll often lead to great successes later on. It’s how genetics works, how nature/evolution works, etc.

Let’s keep that in mind.

by: Julius

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 01:02:30 +0000

“The movie doesn�t have sound when I view it.”

To be clear, I was writing about the video of Marissa, not the Lord of the Rings

by: Julius

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 01:01:09 +0000

The movie doesn’t have sound when I view it.

I agree constraints are mostly a good thing for creativity. I don’t think the movie is the best example, because these people had a budget one would hardly call constraining.

So let’s put some restraints and see if it spurs some creativity; Put a concept in the ideawarz of a website, but it has to be a website for people who have no personal computer and it can not have any color, only black and white, and it should be mouse only, no keyboard.

Good luck