one minute blog: creativity <3's constraints

This is the One Minute Blog (OMB). An email of good stuff for you to think about over the weekend, that takes about a minute to read.

Today’s word count: 373

It took me 1 min 34s to read this.

Back in the 1950’s – Dr. Seuss was on a heater. 

He wrote Cat in the Hat and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Bang! BANG!! (*mike breen voice*) 

He started to get a reputation for his style of short, silly words. Cat in the Hat only used ~236 total words. 

His publisher, Bennett Cerf, decided to up the ante - he challenged Dr. Seuss to a bet:

Write a children’s book using only 50 unique words. 

Challenge accepted.

Not only did Dr. Seuss win the bet, but the book (Green Eggs & Ham) became his best-selling book of all time. (8M+ copies sold)

Sometimes The Constraints Pick YOU

When Steven Spielberg was filming "Jaws” - he ran into a massive constraint.

• Attempt #1 – use real sharks (production team said NO)

• Attempt #2 - build a mechanical shark ($250,000 … and it broke 3 times bc of the water)

So they were screwed. How do you film a shark movie without the killer shark?

They were about to pause production, when Speilberg had an idea: Embrace the constraint.

How can I make a terrifying shark..without ever showing it on camera?

Answer: 

• Triple down on the music and lighting

• Shoot the movie from the shark’s POV - so you never see the shark 

• Only show the shark fin (a swimmer’s nightmare)

The result? Smash hit. ~$500M box office sales on a $7M budget.

As Spielberg later admitted: "If the mechanical sharks had worked, Jaws probably would've been a worse movie."

The takeaway

If you listen to David Goggins or Jocko, you learn a counter-intuitive insight: self discipline is what unlocks personal freedom. 

Similarly - constraints are what unleash creativity. 

"Creativity starts when you cut a zero from your budget." — Jaime Lerner

"The enemy of art is the absence of limitation." — Orson Wells

Even the blog you’re reading right now  uses this principle. 

I call this series the “One Minute Blog” - as a constraint. Can I write something insightful that only takes the reader 1min 59sec max to read? (today’s read time: 1min 34 sec)

My “One Minute” posts are far more popular than my no-limit posts.

“Think outside the box” was wrong. What great creators do is put themselves into a tight box to do their best work. 

-Uncle Shaan

P.S: if you liked this story, you’ll love this deck I dropped last week. It’s full of stories about Rick Rubin, Dr. Seuss, Elon Musk, etc - check it out here.

P.P.S: If you do read it..

1. you’re a real one

2. email me what you think!

Want more OMB (one minute blogs)? - hit reply and let me know! (I read every email)