Conventional wisdom holds that creativity comes from “thinking outside the box”, but constraints are actually one of its key ingredients.
One of Google’s principles of innovation is “creativity loves constraints,” as Marissa Mayer once recounted:
“People think of creativity as this sort of unbridled thing, but engineers thrive on constraints. They love to think their way out of the little box.”
The concept of thinking outside the box originated in the 70s with a psychologist named J.P. Guilford and a famous nine-dots brainteaser.
J.P. drew nine dots in the shape of a square and asked study subjects to connect them all with four straight lines without lifting the pen. The answer (which only 20% figured out) required drawing the lines beyond the artificial boundary of the square — thinking “outside” that box.
J.P. turned that brainteaser into a sweeping theory on creativity problem-solving in general. His theory entered the zeitgeist with an army of creativity consultants. Thinking outside the box has been part of the way we talk about innovation ever since.
But this study was not only debunked in follow-up studies, the importance of constraints has long been overshadowed.
Researchers in a HBR article reviewed 145 empirical studies on the effects of constraints on creativity and innovation and found that a “healthy dose of constraint” was the great unlock.
In one representative example, they wrote about the origin of a particular GE Healthcare innovation — the MAC 400 ECG — which revolutionized rural access to medical care. GE credits the success of the innovation to tight constraints on cost ($1 a scan), form factor (fits in a backpack), time (18 month development), and budget (one-tenth of the previous product).
I like this insight from Jeff Bezos:
“I think frugality drives innovation just like other constraints. One of the best ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out.”
Here are a few related cartoons I’ve drawn over the years:
