Good limits spark ideas. Bad ones just pinch.
Box Me InAre your limits helping or squeezing?
Name a small project you are about to start and the limits around it. See which walls are real, which are habits, and whether the box leaves room to think.
1 The project and its limits free
List 3 to 6 limits. For each, say what kind it is and whether it is fixed or could bend.
2 The clamp free
- fact
- rule
- habit
- chosen
- a bowed slat bends
3 Ask for a reading
One run reads each limit, turns it into a push question, says what room the box leaves and writes the move. The page re-checks the reply.
The reading - none yet
-Limit by limit
The room left
The move
The page's check
4 Saved boxes
How the verdict is decided
Each limit is a fact (the world sets it), a rule (someone else sets it), a habit (an old way of doing it that may not be a real limit) or chosen (you set it on purpose), and is fixed or bendable. Then a fixed rule, in order: if at least half the limits are habits, paper walls - test one; if there are 5 or more limits and at least 3 in 4 are fixed, vise-locked - loosen one; if no limit was chosen on purpose, wide open - add one from the page's card deck; otherwise snug fit - keep the chosen limit. The clamp's squeeze counts 2 for a fixed limit, 1 for a bendable one and half that for a habit, out of 12.
For fun and for getting started. The page only knows the words you type; it is not professional advice.