Hey there,
I’ve been a lifelong Apple geek, and I’ve been thinking about Apple’s new M4 chip. Not because I’m particularly interested in chips, but because it reveals something fascinating about performance.
Now, the M4 isn’t faster because it has more raw power. It’s faster because it’s designed with intelligent constraints. This reminds me of something I’ve noticed about how great work gets done.
Most people’s instinct, when they want to accomplish more, is to remove constraints. They’ll try to work longer hours, or get a bigger budget, or add more resources. But watch any skilled programmer work, and you’ll see the opposite. They’ll often artificially constrain themselves – using fewer variables, simpler data structures, or more basic algorithms.
These constraints don’t limit them. They focus them. It’s like how X/Twitter’s 280-character limit often produces clearer writing than an unlimited word count would.
I’ve found this works for any kind of mental work. When I’m writing essays, my best ones usually come from artificially constraining my time. Same with coding. Same with decision-making.
Here’s a small experiment:
Pick your most important task for today. Set a timer for exactly 25 minutes. No phone, no email, no slack – just you and the work. The constraint will force your brain to optimize in ways it wouldn’t otherwise.
The core insight is this: Performance comes from intelligent constraints, not unlimited resources.
If you want to dig deeper into this idea, we’ve built a whole system around it at LifeHack All-Access.
