Why does working under contraints often foster creativity and innovation?

[Kaje977]

I noticed quite often on others (and I did on myself) that people who work under constraints or certain limitations seem to be more capable of innovative solutions than those who seem to possess a sort of "universal toolbox" to choose from. What is the reason for that? And in what way could this relate to certain epistemological models? (e.g. anthroposophy, transcendental philosophy (Kant), etc) Is working under constraints a good thing or a bad thing according to them? Certain philosophies uphold the doctrine that constraints are necessary, not (only) because they are necessary by principle (such as what Kant claims, with the noumenon), but also because they foster creativity or spark innovation in general. Thus, some argue, it's wise to have such contraints in place because it allows us for more innovative solutions or creative expressions of art if we, somewhat, limit ourselves, even if those constraints actually might not even truly exist or are self-imposed. So, certain contraints aren't technically ontological contraints as in, that they truly exist and limit our cognition, but that they serve a more pragmatic purpose. Yet, some other philosophies would argue harshly against such self-imposed constraints and they similarly would argue that having no such contraints would actually foster creativity and innovation. From my, personal observation and experience, it feels like the former seems to be more true. Constraints foster innovation and creativity. What to make out of this? In a more general term, this is often called "Paradox of Choice" (or "overchoice") or "blank canvas dilemma": The large variety of options available seems to be detrimental to decision-making processes, which often results in a sort of "paralysis" (making no choice or, in creative manners, "not even know where to start").

To give a simple example of this (in an educational manner) is, say, the re-creation of logical gates in Minecraft without using redstone and only water, fence gates and the minecart. What seems to be an impossible feat, is possible, but requires some pretty head-wrenching creative solutions. (The most complex probably being the XOR Gate) Obviously, building a XOR gate using redstone is not all that complicated. But using only fence gates, water and a minecart is not easy at all. It also requires that you truly work the XOR concept in general, such that you actually understand what it does and thus can re-create it in different frameworks that do not involve redstone. (such as with fence gates)

Another example, I can think of right now, is that of system architecture. In one of our practical lessons (I'm studying Computer Science) we're inclined to build certain logical circuits, and finite-state machines from simple gates (yes, very reductionistic, but that's how it is here). We use a digital circuit board with pre-built components. Some of the exercises involved building a full-adder, or a multiplexer without using certain pre-built components. Surely, having a pre-built XOR gate would make it much easier to build the full-adder, but instead, we had to build it ourselves with only the components available (a self-imposed constraint, so to speak). The solution was that using NAND gates can be arranged in such a way that we can functionally build a XOR gate from it. The solution was creative, and it also helped me to strenghten my understanding of how the entire thing works which I wouldn't have gotten if I had simply took the pre-built XOR gate.

So, apparently, constraints do foster creativity, innovation and more understanding. So, what does that mean? I noticed the same, epistemologically, with the noumenon, the thing-in-itself. I am aware that this constraint is self-imposed. On the other hand, I notice that operating under that self-imposed constraint fosters creative solutions. Yes, it makes things 'harder' while leaving these constraints aside would make it a lot easier. It's hard to explain this, but basically it's like this: If I have a spiritual experience, I can operate within the constraints, I purposefully reject myself accessing "immediate knowledge" of that thing. Because if I do it intuitively, I "understand" it, but only in a non-sequential way. It feels all-encompassing. It's like listening to a lecture, taking it all in. This, I end up having trouble truly explaining it to others or applying it, because even though I seem to "know", I don't really know in such a way that I could say "I understand this". However, if I constrain myself, refuse to do it intuitively, I do notice it is a lot harder, yes. But, I do understand it, fully and am able to apply it practically and foster more creative solutions. But this seems to be going against what anthroposophy and other models stand for. Or maybe I am applying it wrong. Maybe someone here has some ideas, explanations and possibly solutions to what I've explained. Additionally, here's a link that talks about this topic as well.

https://www.thoughtlab.com/blog/the-cre ... park-inno/

[AshvinP]

I moved this topic to General Discussions and am bumping it, because I completely missed it before in the 'topic-specific' section, and perhaps others did as well. It presents some very interesting questions that could be explored further. I will try to circle back on it sometime soon.

As a brief remark, I think it is important to notice a spectrum of scales along which the constraints on our knowing process take shape. Then we can notice we are involved in an evolutionary process, and the constraints which were helpful (perhaps even critical) for fostering creativity at one stage of soul-spiritual evolution, may become hindering at a subsequent stage. Not all souls, even in modern times, are at the same stage of evolution, so we need to be very flexible in evaluating which knowing constraints are helpful or hindering. In general, though, it seems the 'uncognizable noumena' constraint has expired its shelf life and has become a hindering influence for most intellectually oriented souls who are in a position to start swimming in the waters of the real-time intuitive process, drawing on completely unsuspected creative insights into that process.

[Federica]

So, apparently, constraints do foster creativity, innovation and more understanding. So, what does that mean? I noticed the same, epistemologically, with the noumenon, the thing-in-itself. I am aware that this constraint is self-imposed. On the other hand, I notice that operating under that self-imposed constraint fosters creative solutions. Yes, it makes things 'harder' while leaving these constraints aside would make it a lot easier. It's hard to explain this, but basically it's like this: If I have a spiritual experience, I can operate within the constraints, I purposefully reject myself accessing "immediate knowledge" of that thing. Because if I do it intuitively, I "understand" it, but only in a non-sequential way. It feels all-encompassing. It's like listening to a lecture, taking it all in. This, I end up having trouble truly explaining it to others or applying it, because even though I seem to "know", I don't really know in such a way that I could say "I understand this". However, if I constrain myself, refuse to do it intuitively, I do notice it is a lot harder, yes. But, I do understand it, fully and am able to apply it practically and foster more creative solutions. But this seems to be going against what anthroposophy and other models stand for. Or maybe I am applying it wrong. Maybe someone here has some ideas, explanations and possibly solutions to what I've explained.

Hi Kaje, here are my thoughts on the question you posed - indeed I have missed it completely until Ashvin brought it to our attention.

On the most general level, one could say that self-imposed constraints are at the core of a disciplined approach to anything, and discipline is an absolute essential in order to overcome our instinctual and lazy tendencies, and achieve anything of real value, as human beings who have the intention to express a certain level of control on the flow of life. But I think your question is more specific and refers to intellectual constraints in problem solving. Why do extra constraints stimulate performance?

First, I would distinguish between creativity and innovation (from a spiritual scientific perspective). As Dennis Klocek wrote, “innovation is the clever permutation of facts which are already known. Creativity is a new synthesis, which results in original or unknown ideas”. Both creativity and innovation can animate the scientist's as well as the artist’s endeavor. It’s not a matter of the type of activity, it’s a matter of what primary force is driving the endeavor: the (currently still predominant) intellectual soul, or the evolving consciousness soul.

As well illustrated by your Mindcraft example, innovation is a purely intellectual expression. It is the purposeful rearrangement of fixed/abstract/past concepts. In your example, known building elements are combined under constraint, in order to obtain a known result, for the sake of…. it could be pride to have devised a non-straightforward solution that brings my name, pleasure of working under stricter constraints that stimulate my individual will to feel distinct from the general world-flow and write its own independent path, …. or something else.

By contrast I would refer to creativity, for example in natural science, as the constellation of concepts progressively forming a new idea received by the thinker, when an initial hypothesis or intuition that occurred to the scientist (for example an intuition about the nature of clouds of plasma) is treated with reverence and acknowledgement of the existence of a higher participation in the cognitive process in act. Then the intuition is given back to the gods in meditation, instead of being immediately constrained into experimental setups, with the self-affirming purpose of extracting cogent physical patterns or laws, which one could then proudly write a paradigm-shifting Nature article about. If a humble, dedicated attitude is enlivened in the mind of the scientist, a balanced breathing is found between phases of using the intellect to organize the concepts that appear at the soul horizon, and phases of listening to the further suggestions sent down to the scientist’s attention from higher cognitive realms.

These different approaches - the creative versus the innovative - could be applied just as well to system architecture (though I know nothing about it and am unable to suggest, or even understand, any concrete examples )

Now I believe that constraints of the kind you have mentioned (intellectual ones) foster innovation but not necessarily creativity, in the sense given above. Creativity is fostered by “taking it all in” as you say, by letting intuition operate, even if, initially, it’s difficult to even explain or restitute what has been intuitively understood. This feeling is the intellect having difficulties sequencing and ordering the concepts that are flowing in, in a clean and streamlined way. In fact, for creativity to emerge, the intellect’s urge to immediately order and explain the insights should even be resisted. This resistance would be the recognition that higher-order understanding and intuition (in its various degrees, from small-i to capital-I Intuition) are a collaborative endeavor between our (or our teams’) agency and the Idea-gifts coming to us by grace from higher agencies or intelligences.

By contrast, innovation can definitely be fostered by added constraints. I believe this is because these act as handles for the intellect to grasp the next frame. And the next frame, in the flow and move forward, and feel individually independent and successful in the process. The intellect thrives on constraints and resistance. The intellect’s nature is even substantiated by resistance to the overall, cosmic flow of existence, as we were saying on the other thread. Constraints are what allows the intellectual soul to express itself. So, more constraints, more cleverness, more technical solutions, more useful results, etcetera. Unfortunately, this often corresponds to more hybris, and more fostering of adversarial forces as well.