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close04today at 8:04 AM1 replyview on HN

> nothing is easier then adding constraints

What's easier is removing the constraints you just added artificially. Constraints you can remove with a flick of a finger are not constraints.

> so why don't you add them back

The reason the proverb says "necessity is the mother of invention" is because "desire" is usually not enough to drive it. It's easy to take the hard road when you're forced onto it, but very hard to choose it when there's an easy alternative.


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embedding-shapetoday at 9:30 AM

> Constraints you can remove with a flick of a finger are not constraints.

Why not? Who cares how/why they're there, as long as you follow the constraints, regardless of how easy they are to remove, they're still there.

I frequently use this when stuck creatively in music production. "Ok, now I can only use this filter for any sound shaping", or "Make a song using only instruments outputting mono", or "Maximum 10 cables to make a new sound on the modular synth" or whatever. Really easy for me to skip these artificial constraints at any time, they still help a lot.

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