There’s a popular philosophy that says creativity needs to be unrestrained. But you need limitations to create your best work. Limitations keep your work grounded and accessible. Limitations force you to think more creatively.
Take Dr. Seuss’ beloved book, Green Eggs and Ham. This book is the fourth bestselling children’s hardcover book of all time. But it only has 50 words in its vocabulary.
That’s unheard of! And Dr. Seuss wasn’t just feeling lazy when he wrote the book. He wrote it on a bet. His previous book, Cat in the Hat only had 225 words in it’s vocabulary. Knowing that, a friend bet him he couldn’t write a book with only 50 words.
He did. And it’s amazing.
Embrace limitations as a challenge to be better—to create something better.
A great limitation we’re all familiar with and often times are extremely angry at, is budget. However, we’ve seen tons of projects that were done on extremely low budgets, even no budgets! Creativity is no longer about creating things, it’s about rearranging what’s already there. (To pull from one of your previous posts)
Great post Jonathan!
-Tyler
Haha. Thanks man 🙂
A great limitation we’re all familiar with and often times are extremely angry at, is budget. However, we’ve seen tons of projects that were done on extremely low budgets, even no budgets! Creativity is no longer about creating things, it’s about rearranging what’s already there. (To pull from one of your previous posts)
Great post Jonathan!
-Tyler
Haha. Thanks man 🙂
This is very good insight 😀 I’ll have to remember this when I’m reading “Green Eggs and Ham,” to Adiya 4 times in one day, every day of my life ;-D
It was after reading to her that I looked this info up. I may have skipped half the book while reading it the second time… 😀
This is very good insight 😀 I’ll have to remember this when I’m reading “Green Eggs and Ham,” to Adiya 4 times in one day, every day of my life ;-D
It was after reading to her that I looked this info up. I may have skipped half the book while reading it the second time… 😀
The other day I was about to go into a brainstorming session, and I remembered this post. So instead of taking out a notebook or my laptop, I grabbed some Post-Its and a pen. Trying to narrow down my ideas to a Post-It note not only presents a bit of a challenge, but it forces me to only write out whats most important, and then focus on that. In the process, I found that my mind was running rampant with ideas all centered around the main point on the post it note. Definitely the most productive brainstorming session I’ve had in a while.
Just my own idea on the topic. Thanks for the post! Keep them coming!
That’s brilliant! Thanks for sharing. I might try that next brainstorming session. 🙂
The other day I was about to go into a brainstorming session, and I remembered this post. So instead of taking out a notebook or my laptop, I grabbed some Post-Its and a pen. Trying to narrow down my ideas to a Post-It note not only presents a bit of a challenge, but it forces me to only write out whats most important, and then focus on that. In the process, I found that my mind was running rampant with ideas all centered around the main point on the post it note. Definitely the most productive brainstorming session I’ve had in a while.
Just my own idea on the topic. Thanks for the post! Keep them coming!
That’s brilliant! Thanks for sharing. I might try that next brainstorming session. 🙂