Thursday, October 21, 2010

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.