Constraints (for Life)
I like constraints to nourish artistic work, to unblock you when you have total freedom. I use them to enhance my writing or other types of work I do.
# The Problem of Total Freedom
Derek Sivers once said:
When you have infinite options, you often end up writing predictable or dishonest music.
The solution: make restrictive, arbitrary rules. E.g., you might have a Writer’s Block for writing an article, but if you set the rule of “only write in first form, ‘I’”, and only “about experiences you had”, and all of a sudden the ideas will come out of you like nonstop
# Constraints Result in Intuitive Tools
I believe Constraints make intuitive apps or tools, e.g., for data-specific. Rill Developer is a intuitive BI Tool, because it has constraints to the customization.
# Constraints Simplify Life
In Why Are We Here on Earth I wrote:
The Ten Commandments of the bible are like guidance in life. Like principles, people need Constraints. Like in things doing in life, and in life it self. An artist who has no constraints has a hard time creating anything. It’s like unblocking himself. Ten Commandments are the constraints of life, the law for how to live life before there were any laws in place in this world.
Origin: Initially from Derek Sivers, Experiments in music and life | Derek Sivers