there is an interesting way to focus creative effort that i stumbled upon some years ago. i've heard people call it "limiting your pallette". the idea is you enter a constraint into the process, or a set of them, and then create within that "space".

haiku is a good example. there are several ways to do it but the most common i've seen is:

first line: 5 syllables
second line: 7 syllables
third line: 5 syllables

then you try to communicate some kind of poignant emotion and meaning within the bounds of that limited space.

we could look at mondrian as an obvious example of intentionally limiting the creative range of expression. there are as many examples as there are successful pieces of art. even an artist as wildly expressive as jackson pollock intentionally limited himself to a simple technique. he dripped paint on stuff. that was it.

here at jonvon.net i type in small letters, no capitalization except in rare circumstances. why do i do that? i dunno! but it sorta works for me somehow.

whatever the case, the limitation you introduce into your craft turns out to be freeing. the constraint frees your mind from thinking too broadly and focuses your attention on what you are going to pour into that limited space. or something like that. i don't know why it works, but it does.

why am i talking about this? well i thought chris blatnick's response to andrew's post on twitter hit the nail on the head, and i thought i'd push into what chris was saying a little more.

andrew's argument is that twitter's infrastructure isn't up to the task of users chatting. far be it from me to dispute him on that topic. he's investigated it and i'm sure he's right. we've all seen the fail whale when twitter goes down.

frankly my dear, i don't care if the infrastructure isn't up to the task. they've got a huge runaway hit on their hands and i'm sure the money will come from somewhere to get the infrastructure right eventually.

for me the point chris makes is more interesting. well he makes a bunch of great points actually, he nails all the right stuff quite well. but this part made me think:

It encourages interesting ebbs and flows within a conversation or a person's thought patterns that you would not otherwise see if they had the ability to type free form.

twitter is all about limitation, but it's the good kind. you choose who you want to follow, and you don't follow anyone else. you only write in 140 character installments (just right to fit in a haiku btw). you can't "d" another person unless you both follow each other, and so on. pretty cool.

i think there is some kind of sleeper effect going on with this model. you might not know you have this amazing creative engine inside your skull. but something about twitter turns it on. what is it? well they are forcing you into a small 140 character window. every time. it does something to the mind. i don't know if they meant to do it. maybe they had the same infrastructural concerns that andrew has, and they limited it to 140 chars because of that. maybe they were targeting mobile phones. maybe it was all of that along with reasons i can't think of. but whatever it was, it just freaking works.