Sam Gentle.com

Constraints

It seems like as you go through life, you gain constraints. Good constraints, for the most part, things like "don't throw food at people" or "you can't put both pant legs on at the same time". I think part of what we consider learning a skill is just internalising the constraints of the domain that skill applies to. Some of those constraints are necessary and some aren't, but it's pretty tough to know which.

Worse still, constraints seem to become part of our identity. You learn not to be too loud at parties, and eventually you start thinking of yourself as being a not-loud-at-parties person. Even positive qualities like listening to people have hidden constraints, like never not listening to people. You usually internalise those constraints to the point of not even thinking about them, but you're still constrained just the same.

There's a Buddhist concept called shoshin, or beginner's mind, based on the idea that the best attitude when studying is that of a beginner, without preconceptions. I think this applies even more strongly to problem solving: many seemingly intractable problems stem from not being willing to abandon certain constraints that you take for granted.

And of course the constraints that you take the most for granted are the ones that make up your identity, the ones that you consider part of who you are. We are very reluctant to let go of them, if we notice them at all, because we feel like they would make us into someone different. But maybe by abandoning one of those constraints you would discover that it wasn't actually necessary, and with it gone your problems become easier to solve.

In that sense you would become someone different, but someone better.