Constraints and creativity (article)

image credit: http://www.valuesandcapitalism.com/possible-many-choices/

I don't normally link to other articles in my blog, but this one ties into something I've talked about before when it comes to creativity, parameters, limitations, not taking things simply and thinking out the box.

https://www.fastcompany.com/3067925/the-science-of-work/how-constraints-force-your-brain-to-be-more-creative

Please take a look; it's not that long of a read.

There are a few things that I wanted to highlight from that article:

"Without constraints, the research suggests, we tend instead to simply retrieve exemplary use cases from memory; we typically sit on a chair, so that’s how we think of chairs."

We see this in taiko all the time.  Drums are drums.  Stands are stands.  Bachi are bachi.  But is that all they can be?  What else can you strike the drums with?  What else can you do with bachi?  We don't tend to think that way because we're so comfortable with doing what's expected.

"We dedicate our mental energy to acting more resourcefully. If you ask someone to design or build a product, you might get a handful of good ideas. But if you ask someone to design or build it while sticking within a tight budget, chances are you’ll get much better results."

If you want to be creative, having too much to work with can actually be a hindrance.  If you have four drums to play on, where do you start?  But if you only have one, you're more likely to explore than one drum than if you had four to split your attention over.  If you know you can have twenty people to play a new song, you might not utilize them as creatively as if you only get to use four.

Anyways, just food for thought.  If you're trying to be creative, trying to come up with new ideas and feeling frustrated or overwhelmed, narrow your options down and focus on limited resources and see what happens!