Bikeshedding

From Wikipedia:  Parkinson's Law of Triviality (also known as the bicycle shed example, and by the expression colour of the bikeshed) is C. Northcote Parkinson's 1957 argument that organisations give disproportionate weight to trivial issues.

The Board of Trustees will approve the building of a nuclear power plant without much discussion because the complexity of the engineering issues are beyond them and they assume others have struggled over the details.  However, the approval of the construction of a bike shed (a small project anyone can do over the course of a weekend) will engender endless discussion about materials and details.

See also http://bikeshed.com

Constraints encourage creativity

Quote from Igor Stravinsky (composer, 1882-1971): My freedom will be so much the greater and more meaningful the more narrowly I limit my field of action and the more I surround myself with obstacles. Whatever diminishes constraint diminishes strength. The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees...

It is a paradox that sometimes tightly constraining oneself by rules (logical or arbitrary) can spur creativity.