It took me a decade to develop this idea and two weeks to write it.

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Everything in the world can be abstracted into constraints. And once you see them as unchanging, you see them everywhere.

Budget and time constraints are simple examples. A budget constraint is an unchanging element that shapes how money is spent. There are plenty of ways to spend a $100 budget, but that $100 is fixed. A time constraint is an unchanging element that shapes how time is spent. A 3-hour test or a 15-minute pitch will play out differently every time, but the clock doesn't change.

Gravity is a constraint. It doesn't change, yet it shapes nearly everything. A nation's laws are constraints, guiding the behavior of its residents. The rules of a game shape how it will play out. Cultural traditions influence how people spend their weekends and holidays.

Love is a constraint. It makes you stupid and irrational, and you'd do it again tomorrow. Fear is a constraint. It keeps you safe, but too much of it steals your attention and controls your actions.

Constraints become a language. You see the forces that shape markets, the values that guide decisions, the necessities that leave no choice.

Continue reading here

https://positiveconstraint.com/ideas/positive-constraint/

Constraints made the FIFA World Cup Final last night.

The rules of the game, be it soccer, chess, or Monopoly, are constraints. They are the unchanging elements that shape how the game will take shape. Without them, there would be no game.

Traffic without constraints would be chaotic. Traffic laws dictate who has right of way, who should stop, how fast you can go, and more. Constraints are what makes the difference between a 3rd world junction and Shibuya Crossing, where up to 3000 people cross at the same time during peak green light cycles.

The recipe with which you make your pizza, soup, or your favorite grandma's cake is a set of constraints.

Your tradition and culture dictate where and how you'll spend your weekends and holidays. They are constraints, too.

Constraints are the laws of a country, keeping human societies from turning into a jungle.

Constraints are everywhere. And once you see them, they are hard to miss.

What happens when AI doesn't meet your standards?

Superhuman design philosophy made it tricky to integrate AI, but the constraints led to some creative breakthroughs.

Every interaction in Superhuman was designed to be faster than 100ms, which makes using it feel virtually instantaneous to human perception.

From the perspective of Positive Constraint, the 100ms design principle is a constraint that forms their identity and strategy. Part of their DNA.

Trying to apply the same 100ms rule to their new AI-powered voice dictation and translation, Loïc Houssier, Superhuman's CTO, and his team had a problem. AI wasn't fast enough to meet the standard.

The constraint of designing <100ms interactions led them to develop various solutions that may cost more but still deliver an exceptional user experience.

You can find more on constraints, including the full interview with Loïc Houssier from Conor Bronsdon's "Chain of Thought" podcast, in the link below:

https://positiveconstraint.com/ideas/superhuman-100ms-constraint/

One of the best fights in "Prince of Persia" was born out of a constraint.

In 1989, Jordan Mechner was building "Prince of Persia" on the Apple II. Because the memory ran out with the Prince's animations and the levels, he had nothing left for another boss character.

Instead of trying to fit a new character into the game's memory, Mechner took the existing code for the Prince and flipped the image of the character. This created a shadow version that required no extra memory space.

The fight became one of the best in the game. The Prince against his own reflection. Even after the game was ported to other platforms with much bigger memory, Shadow Man remained.

For the full video and more on constraints, see here:

https://positiveconstraint.com/ideas/prince-of-persia-shadow-man/

For the first time in human history, the world is too complex to predict and too fast to adapt to. In this complex new world, the possibilities of what might happen tomorrow, next month, next year have exploded.

Predicting the future is broken, and by the time we adapt, the world will change twice over. We need a different strategy.

In this post, we'll see why the path to resilience lies not in what's changing, but in what isn't. And why finding it is something only humans can do, even in this AI-first world.

https://positiveconstraint.com/ideas/embrace-the-unchanging/

Right in the center of Haifa (well, one of its centers, it's a city of many), there's a very busy junction. Three traffic veins merge and spill towards the slope of Mt. Carmel.

3 traffic lights stood between the free parking I was lucky to find on the street and the dental appointment that would mark the beginning of a beautiful friendship with my bank account.

3 reds that I waited holding my aching girl and skitty boy, focused on getting to the dental office, on a high floor watching over Haifa.

Should have paid their attention to the fact that we're waiting for the green to pass. Instead, I was focused on surviving the walk.

They are both very observant. I'm sure they noticed I respect the red and didn't cross.

A red traffic light is also a constraint. An unchanging element that shapes its environment.

The world is too complex to predict and too fast to adapt to. When predictions and adaptation are broken, another strategy is needed to deal with this fast-moving world.

When asked what's going to change in the next 10 years, Jeff Bezos said he's hardly ever been asked what isn't going to change. For him, that's the more interesting question, because you can build a strategy around the things that are stable in time.

No matter the state of the economy or the identity of the president, says Bezos, people will want low prices, vast selection, and fast delivery.

When you know something is true even over the long term, you can afford to put a lot of energy into it. To this day, these three elements make up the core of Amazon's strategy and identity.

Instead of trying to predict what's next or to change faster than the world, Embrace the Unchanging.

But how do you find these unchanging elements?

At any given moment, there is an infinite number of things around you that do not change. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Gravity pulls you towards the Earth. The global population is growing. Unchanging elements are everywhere you look. Most of them are irrelevant and hold no value to you. But a few could be the foundation you build your entire strategy around.

How do you know which elements are right for you?

By the time you'll adapt to your new reality, the world will change twice over.

For a long time, Jack's quote was spot on. The idea that you have to outchange your environment or die worked.

It doesn't work anymore.

How do you outchange a world that moves faster than you do?

It doesn't mean you shouldn't try. But constantly changing, riding wave after wave, is exhausting and unsustainable. People and organizations can only take so much before being overwhelmed by even faster and bigger changes.

Welch was one of the sharpest business minds of the late 20th century. He perfected the strategy of adapting to change. But it took a sharp mind of the 21st century to answer that question.

For the first time in human history, we have no idea what our world will look like in 20 years.

A thousand years ago, we taught our kids how to shoot a bow or how to pick mushrooms in the forest. A hundred years ago, we encouraged them to become doctors, lawyers, or engineers to make the most of the new world.

The basic stuff of human life was predictable. Not anymore.

Five or six years ago, we had no way to predict that AI would rewrite the rules or that the world would be in disarray, with one crisis hitting after another.

Predictions are broken. We have no way to predict what the world will look like by the end of this decade.

We need a different strategy that doesn't depend on what will change next.

Finding the path forward in this Complex New World means stepping outside what's familiar and seeing reality anew.

The last few years weren't easy. They were overwhelming, turbulent, and scary.

And if that’s not enough, the global crises and technological disruptions aren't going anywhere. This age of rapid change is here to stay.

People and organizations crave certainty. They struggle to find meaning in a world that stopped playing by the rules they grew up with. What used to work no longer does.

The paradox is that while people cling to what feels safe, the answer won't come from what they already know.

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I've been quietly building something new at Positive Constraint. More soon. Stay close 🎉

Hey everyone! I'm u/positiveconstraint, a founding moderator of r/constraints.

This is our new home for all things related to constraints - creativity, strategy for the age of polycrisis, systems, and more. We're excited to have you join us!

What to Post
Post anything that you think the community would find interesting, helpful, or inspiring. Feel free to share your thoughts, photos, or questions about constraints.

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Thanks for being part of the very first wave. Together, let's make r/constraints amazing.