The Cost of Keeping Your Options Open (with David Epstein)

About this episode

David Epstein discusses how constraints can enhance creativity and productivity, drawing from his book 'Inside the Box'.

In 1960, A publisher at Random House bet a writer $50 that he couldn't produce a children's book using just 50 distinct words. That writer was Dr. Seuss, and the resulting book was Green Eggs and Ham , which has gone on to sell more than 200 million copies. Sometimes, limits aren't a bad thing. In fact, they often lead to unexpected breakthroughs in creativity, productivity, and satisfaction. This is the message at the heart of David Epstein's new book, Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better . This is something elite performers know well. They aren't adding more and more or keeping their options open; they're whittling down to what matters most. So we wanted to ask David on to give us the lessons from his book and from his research that can most effectively help us do that too.  Get a free LMNT drink mix pack with any purchase:  drinkLMNT.com/Clay Click here for an AI-generated transcript (please excuse errors in grammar or spelling) - Subscribe to  The Growth Equation newsletter -  Join The Growth Equation Academy - If you are enjoying "excellence, actually," do us a huge favor: text your favorite episode to three people so they can enjoy it, too…

People in this episode

Hosts: Steve Magness, Brad Stulberg, Clay Skipper

Guest: David Epstein

Topics covered

• creativity
• productivity
• constraints
• elite performance
• decision making

Keywords

• constraints
• creativity
• productivity
• elite performers
• decision making

Sponsors

LMNT

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Random House, The Growth Equation

Books & works: Green Eggs and Ham, Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better

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