Constraints

Constraints are a funny thing and I’m learning to love the creativity they induce. 

Over the weekend I had a conversation with a photographer about constraints. 

The photographer had been hired for the event we were both at and had come armed with several cameras, tripods and lots of expensive looking equipment. 

For a moment, it stressed me out. I wished that at my events we could afford to hire someone with such impressive equipment, but as a bootstrapped business at the moment all of our money goes straight back into our product: hiring the best chefs and purchasing the best ingredients. 

For a recent event, I bought a disposable camera for £20 and let people take their own pictures. I thought the result was quite a success, but seeing his setup made me rethink my approach. 

As we chatted, I complained about how the disposable film camera only had 20 shots in it. Although it was vintage and fun, the reality was that we had no idea how the pictures would turn out until they were developed and we were constrained to only a few images from the event. 

The photographer smiled at me and responded: “constraints are the most important part of creativity”. 

I think he’s right. Especially for consumer businesses, we’re taught that more is better. Shove more images down peoples throat, flood their timelines with content, overwhelm them with information. How about the opposite? What if as a business we could only communicate with our customers via say 12 posts a year? Or even less? This would surely make us more thoughtful and creative! 

And it seems this holds true across other industries too. One example is Warren Buffet's “20-slot rule” in which he claims:

I could improve your ultimate financial welfare by giving you a ticket with only 20 slots in it so that you had 20 punches—representing all the investments that you got to make in a lifetime

I’ve now been wondering, what other constraints can I add into my life and business? Maybe constraining the number of days I eat meat? Or constraining the days I get to use my phone? Playing with constraints might be the easiest “creativity hack”  and I’m eager to explore.

If you’ve got a good example of a constraint thats led to some interesting outcomes, please don’t hesitate to share in the comments below.