Constraint quotes

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David_Epstein

Giant Undertakings

“Since the 1990s, researcher Bent Flyvbjerg has kept a database that tracks giant undertakings... Only 8.5 percent of projects finished on time and on budget; 0.5 percent did that and delivered the prophesied benefits. Almost every major infrastructure project goes over budget, but at least not by as much as IT projects, which have a greater tendency to go hundreds of percent over budget. The pattern of disaster that Flyvbjerg has documented is relatively simple: With few constraints, exciting projects get too large too fast, going from big idea to giant endeavor extremely quickly.”
  • Source: David Epstein in the book “Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better”. Published 2026 by Riverhead Books. Page 14. ISBN 978-0593715734 (Ebook).
Keywords: Since_quotes Research_quotes Database_quotes Track_quotes Giant_quotes Undertaking_quotes Percent_quotes Project_quotes Finish_quotes Time_quotes Budget_quotes Deliver_quotes Prophecy_quotes Benefit_quotes Major_quotes Infrastructure_quotes Go_quotes Information_Technology_quotes Great_quotes Tendency_quotes Hundred_quotes Over_quotes Pattern_quotes Disaster_quotes Documentation_quotes Relative_quotes Simple_quotes Few_quotes Constraint_quotes Excited_quotes Large_quotes Fast_quotes Big_quotes Idea_quotes Endeavor_quotes Quick_quotes

Scientific Method Constraints

“Well-conceived constraints, like those at the heart of the scientific method, compel us to stop, think, and test. In other words, they force us to learn.”
  • Source: David Epstein in the book “Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better”. Published 2026 by Riverhead Books. Page 43. ISBN 978-0593715734 (Ebook).
Keywords: Well_quotes Conceive_quotes Constraint_quotes Heart_quotes Science_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Compel_quotes Stop_quotes Think_quotes Test_quotes Word_quotes Force_quotes Learn_quotes Other_quotes

Creative Constraints

“That's the thing about constraints that spur creativity: They shut down many possibilities, but stimulate more varied and novel exploration of those that remain... Given complete freedom, our very strong urge is to follow the ‘path of least resistance.’ Specifically, we do only what we have done before, or follow the first example that jumps to mind.”
  • Source: David Epstein in the book “Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better”. Published 2026 by Riverhead Books. Page 58. ISBN 978-0593715734 (Ebook).
Keywords: Thing_quotes Constraint_quotes Spur_quotes Creativity_quotes Shut_quotes Down_quotes Many_quotes Possibility_quotes Stimulate_quotes Variety_quotes Novel_quotes Explore_quotes Remain_quotes Give_quotes Complete_quotes Freedom_quotes Strong_quotes Urge_quotes Follow_quotes Path_quotes Least_quotes Resistance_quotes Do_quotes What_quotes Before_quotes Follow_quotes First_quotes Example_quotes Jump_quotes Mind_quotes

The Box

“Sometimes new ideas require entirely new forms. It’s not that we need to ‘think outside the box,’ so to speak, as much as we need to craft a new box, for new ideas. Constraints can help with that.”
  • Source: David Epstein in the book “Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better”. Published 2026 by Riverhead Books. Page 70. ISBN 978-0593715734 (Ebook).
Keywords: Sometime_quotes New_quotes Idea_quotes Require_quotes Entire_quotes Form_quotes Need_quotes Think_quotes Outside_quotes Box_quotes Craft_quotes Constraint_quotes

Haiku Way

“Haiku finds depth in the simple, and creativity in constraints that block the path of least resistance... Haiku is small, so you can try easily and iterate quickly. It is in present tense, so it forces you to be in the moment... Haiku is the simplest example of a helpful constraint... It is not a form, it is a way — an attitude. It is a way of being, of eagerly accepting unnecessary obstacles because of where they can lead.”
  • Source: David Epstein in the book “Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better”. Published 2026 by Riverhead Books. Page 233. ISBN 978-0593715734 (Ebook).
Keywords: Haiku_quotes Find_quotes Depth_quotes Simple_quotes Creativity_quotes Constraint_quotes Block_quotes Path_quotes Least_quotes Resistance_quotes Small_quotes Try_quotes Easy_quotes Iteration_quotes Quick_quotes Present_quotes Tense_quotes Force_quotes Moment_quotes Example_quotes Help_quotes Form_quotes Way_quotes Attitude_quotes Being_quotes Eager_quotes Accept_quotes Unnecessary_quotes Obstacle_quotes Because_quotes Where_quotes Lead_quotes

Michael_Faraday

Self-Correction

“Among those points of self-education which take up the form of mental discipline, there is one of great importance, and, moreover, difficult to deal with, because it involves an internal conflict, and equally touches our vanity and our ease. It consists in the tendency to deceive ourselves regarding all we wish for, and the necessity of resistance to these desires. It is impossible for any one who has not been constrained, by the course of his occupation and thoughts, to a habit of continual self-correction, to be aware of the amount of error in relation to judgment arising from this tendency. The force of the temptation which urges us to seek for such evidence and appearances as are in favour of our desires, and to disregard those which oppose them, is wonderfully great. In this respect we are all, more or less, active promoters of error. In place of practising wholesome self-abnegation, we ever make the wish the father to the thought: we receive as friendly that which agrees with, we resist with dislike that which opposes us; whereas the very reverse is required by every dictate of common sense.”
  • Source: Michael Faraday. Royal Institution Lecture On Mental Education (6 May 1854), as reprinted in Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics, by Michael Faraday, 1859, pp 474-475.
Keywords: Self-Education_quotes Autodidact_quotes Mental_quotes Discipline_quotes Importance_quotes Conflict_quotes Vanity_quotes Tendency_quotes Self-Deception_quotes Wish_quotes Resistance_quotes Desire_quotes Impossibility_quotes Constraint_quotes Occupation_quotes Thinking_quotes Habit_quotes Self-Correction_quotes Error_quotes Judgment_quotes Temptation_quotes Urge_quotes Evidence_quotes Disregard_quotes Opposition_quotes Wonder_quotes Promotion_quotes Practice_quotes Self-Abnegation_quotes Tribalism_quotes Common_Sense_quotes

David_Kipping

Parent Reality Different

“If we concede that the possibility that our observations and understanding of physics may in fact be simulated... our knowledge of physics is wholly local to the simulation and may have no real bearing on the constraints that affect a parent reality, whose rules and limitations may be entirely different.”
  • Source: David Kipping from the paper “A Bayesian Approach to the Simulation Argument”, published 2020 in the journal ‘Universe’, volume 6, issue 8. DOI:10.3390/universe6080109. Online at https://www.mdpi.com/2218-1997/6/8/109 (2025).
Keywords: Concede_quotes Possibility_quotes Observation_quotes Understand_quotes Physics_quotes Fact_quotes Simulation_quotes Knowledge_quotes Whole_quotes Local_quotes Real_quotes Bearing_quotes Constraint_quotes Affect_quotes Parent_quotes Reality_quotes Rule_quotes Limit_quotes Entire_quotes Different_quotes

Herbert_Simon

Long Definition of Design

“The ‘inner environment' of the design problem is represented by a set of given alternatives of action. The alternatives may be given in extenso: more commonly they are specified in terms of command variables that have defined domains. The ‘outer environment' is represented by a set of parameters, which may be known with certainty or only in terms of a probability distribution. The goals for adaptation of inner to outer environment are defined by a utility function a function, usually scalar, of the command variables and environmental parameters perhaps supplemented by a number of constraints (inequalities, say, between functions of the command variables and environmental parameters). The optimization problem is to find an admissible set of values of the command variables, compatible with the constraints, that maximize the utility function for the given values of the environmental parameters. (In the probabilistic case we might say, 'maximize the expected value of the utility function,' for instance, instead of 'maximize the utility function.')”
Keywords: Inner_quotes Environment_quotes Design_quotes Problem_quotes Representation_quotes Set_quotes Alternative_quotes Action_quotes Extenso_quotes Common_quotes Specification_quotes Term_quotes Command_quotes Variable_quotes Definition_quotes Domain_quotes Outer_quotes Parameter_quotes Knowledge_quotes Certainty_quotes Probability_quotes Distribution_quotes Goal_quotes Adaptation_quotes Utility_quotes Function_quotes Scalar_quotes Supplement_quotes Number_quotes Constraint_quotes Maximum_quotes Value_quotes Compatibility_quotes Case_quotes Expectation_quotes Inequality_quotes Optimization_quotes Admissible_quotes

Shoshana_Zuboff

Panopticon Recording

“Information systems that translate, record, and display human behavior can provide the computer age version of universal transparency with a degree of illumination that would have exceeded even Bentham's most outlandish fantasies. Such systems can become information panopticons that, freed from the constraints of space and time, do not depend upon the physical arrangement of buildings or the laborious record keeping of industrial administration. They do not require the mutual presence of objects of observation. They do not even require the presence of an observer. Information systems can automatically and continuously record almost anything their designers want to capture, regardless of the specific intentions brought to the design process or the motives that guide data interpretation and utilization.”
  • Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 322. ISBN:0465032125.
Keywords: Panopticon_quotes Information_quotes System_quotes Translation_quotes Display_quotes Computer_quotes Surveillance_quotes Universal_quotes Transparency_quotes Illumination_quotes Fantasy_quotes Constraint_quotes Time_quotes Space_quotes Dependency_quotes Physical_quotes Arrangement_quotes Administration_quotes Building_quotes Industrial_quotes Object_quotes Observation_quotes Automation_quotes Record_quotes Design_quotes Capture_quotes Intentional_quotes Process_quotes Motivation_quotes Guidance_quotes Interpretation_quotes Utilization_quotes Human_quotes Behavior_quotes Provide_quotes Age_quotes Version_quotes Free_quotes Laborious_quotes Keep_quotes Require_quotes Presense_quotes Observer_quotes Continuous_quotes Designer_quotes Regardless_quotes Specific_quotes Data_quotes
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