Embrace Constraints

Res Extensa #46 :: On boundaries and creativity

I recently watched this interview with legendary sound engineer Bob Power, who worked with dozens of hip-hop artists through the 80s and 90s on some of the most influential records put to tape. It got me thinking about the role of constraints in the creative process.

Here's Bob talking about the relationship between the limitations they had, and the methods they developed to work within those bounds. The relevant part starts at 7:14:

Part of the reason why the The Low End Theory was such a groundbreaking record, and the first record as well going into Midnight Marauders was, you have to remember what sampling was like the time. It started out where all you could sample would be a kick and a snare, separate. "Boom, bap, boom, bap" and that was it. No longer loops. Anything longer you heard was cut in by a DJ. So as sampling time increased, the constructions got more and more complex.

And it's just an interesting phenomenon about technology informing the art form. Nobody really thinks about it, but that was really responsible for the more and more complex constructions of hip-hop tracks. So by the time Midnight Marauders came around, I think we're up to, you know, with with memory enhancements up to 6 or 10 seconds of sampling time on different samplers. By that time Tip and Ali, they had their own studios in their places. But for the most part, until then nobody had enough gear to be able to hear the realization of what they heard in their head before they got to the studio.

The whole interview is fascinating. I love seeing the inner workings of a craft.

He describes how the expansion of memory space on samplers expanded the complexity of tracks artists could assemble. They recorded The Low End Theory (often described as the "Sgt. Pepper's of Hip-Hop") with primitive sampler technology and 2-inch tape. So Q-Tip and Ali would come with a sonic image of what they wanted to build, but have to work within the bounds of the available tech stack. So how different (and possibly inferior) would LET have been without those constraints? If they had DAWs and Pro Tools and a $10m studio, I'd argue we don't get the legendary record we did. This all makes me even more impressed with other earlier works that were even more constrained — Paul’s Boutique, Eric B. and Rakim, the or the early 80s Def Jam catalog.

The story of creative work and innovation is one of embracing constraints. The iambic pentameter of a sonnet, the wild ideas authors can explore in the short story format that wouldn't carry a full novel, or the new medium created by Twitter's 140-character limit.

People see constraints as limiting, as forces "holding them back" from achieving great things.

"If only we had more { money | time | authority | technology }, we could get everything done."

But there's a paradox here: it's never actually been true.

All great achievements happen while yoked by constraints. Even the biggest budget, high-stakes government programs (the Manhattan Project, Apollo Program) were heavily constrained. Though they certainly had colossal budgets and personnel availability, physics had a lot to say about what the scientists could do. As did “we need this yesterday” timelines — Imperial Japan, the Nazis, and the Soviets had a lot to say about the time innovators had to deliver. So did JFK.

Constraints limit where you can apply your attention. With limitless time, money, and resources, your attention bleeds off in all sorts of directions, following costly hallways where you find nothing interesting. Even more likely, a lack of limits paralyzes your decision making while you try to assess the 100 possible paths. You're better off spending time where you can get a result quickly, and try more things.

In Hard Edges, Soft Middle (RE 16), I talked about how self-imposed constraints help you explore the solution space more freely:

Any creative work benefits from boundaries, from having constraints on what can be done. The writer is constrained by a deadline or word count. The artist is constrained by the canvas and medium. A product team should be constrained by a hard goal line in terms of time or objective, or preferably both.

Some of the best work I've ever been a part of happened when we chose particular things we weren't going to do — when we intentionally blocked specific paths for ourselves for some cost/benefit/time balance. Boundaries allow us to focus on fewer possibilities and give greater useful, serious attention to fewer options. We can strongly consider 10 approaches rather than poorly considering 50 (or, even worse, becoming attached to a specific one before we've explored any others).

Working within constraints relieves you of feeling compelled to consider the implausible. The more you accelerate your ability to make decisions, the more space you can explore, the more "adjacent possible" options you can test. Trying more ideas tends to lead to more interesting, novel results.

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