In past I foolishly thought that if I just had more money, more time or more brains I could achieve whatever I was after. I thought that some limitation, some constraint is preventing me from doing whatever I set out to do.
By now I know that is completely misguided. Having no constraints does not lead to success, but having them certainly does. Having lots of money or lots of time does not guarantee that you will succeed in whatever you are trying to do, it is actually limiting. More startups were hurt by too much money than by lack of it.
I’ll give you two examples. In May this year Duke Nukem makers 3D Realms closed the doors and let go of all staff. They failed to finish sequel Duke Nukem Forever to cult classic game. They were at it since 1997. For 12 years straight they worked on sequel while most games are finished in 2-4 years. First version of Duke Nukem was done in year and half…
So why they have failed to develop sequel? Lots of time and lots of money. The two most common constraints on any project were not present, and with perfectionism running amok, they never finished. If you have latest January 2010 Wired issue you can read all about it in detail…
Second example that illustrates this is open source Chandler calendaring project that is center piece of Dreaming in Code book that I recommend reading (my book review is here). In this project due to wealthy financier, money was not a constraint and 2 dozen of developers run in a circle for 3 years producing “perfect” calendaring app… At the end though, they at least released something…
Thinking that some limitation is preventing you from doing something is just an excuse, opposite is the case. Having limited time, limited finances, limited resources, limited whatever, forces us to think out of box. It forces us to come up with novel approach. It forces us to finish whatever we are doing.
Having no constraints widens the possibilities so much that we get lost in sea of choices.
And this kind of has Zen quality to it. Unlimited limits you while constraints free you.
