I asked her what she meant, and instead of telling me, she just laughed and said go ahead, remove the restrictions and see for myself.

She was right! Without the restrictions there were so many more possibilities I had to work much harder to complete the assignment. It was still fun though and I learned more than just the assignment from that lesson.

Many lesser directors often end up with "lightning in a bottle" -- aka a film that far exceeds their normal ability -- because the common stress of the experience on direction, on production, on the talent made for a synthesis better than sum of its parts.

It doesn't always work that way, but when it does it's very striking.

I wonder why our own dreams are so fascinating, then.

The "walls" are the rules and the task is to figure out how to succeed within those rules. Succeed is up to perspective in many instances.

This encourages creativity. It's why I love baseball, cuz the rules are constantly evolving as people game them. It's so joyful seeing people exploit the rules they agreed to play by.

Limits force us to think INSIDE the box. It's a lot of fun.

Communal boredom is also very important. Being bored with friends is an amazing launching pad for new ideas and thinking.

there isn't much to add to it other than the slight refinement that constraints yield technique. it's similar to relating to rules as tools and not merely limits or constraints. it's an orientation.