Disrupt Yourself, With a New Introduction

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Embrace Constraints

Whom the gods wish to destroy, they give unlimited resources.

—Twyla Tharp

Constraint, limit, restriction, shackle, ceiling, cap, regulation, ration: Americans living in “the land of the free” don’t much like these words, believing that anything that infringes on our freedom undermines our inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

But nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to pursuing a new challenge. Constraints offer structure that can liberate us from the chaos and disorder of entropy.

Not only are constraints theoretically good, as a practical matter, they are unavoidable. Did you know, for example, that many of the iconic scenes in Jaws came about because of a malfunctioning mechanical ...