The Creative Problem Solver

iv.

Be constrained

‘The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees oneself. And the arbitrariness of the constraint serves only to obtain precision of execution.’

IGOR STRAVINSKY

Sometimes you can have too much freedom. Like a red setter let off the lead, your mind can go bounding off enthusiastically … but end up lost and panting.

And sometimes if you can do anything, you end up doing nothing.

But give yourself an artificial constraint – and by forcing your brain to think around this new, arbitrary obstacle, you may come up with an interesting new idea.

Alternatively, you can introduce a constraint that’s not arbitrary but adds something desirable. It’s different from having a problem that has to be solved, it’s introducing a constraint that ...