“Inside the Box
By David Epstein
Riverhead, 304 pages, $32
The periodic table supposedly came to Dmitri Mendeleev in a dream. Freed from the limits of the conscious world during a nap in early 1869, the Russian chemist entered a fantastical space where the elements danced around him until they assembled into the tidy arrangement that we know today. It is a great story. But as David Epstein writes in "Inside the Box," it "completely misses the true secret to Mendeleev's success."
The reality is that Mendeleev had a contract to produce a chemistry textbook. He was in a hurry to meet a deadline and had to organize the material in a way that would fit strict requirements. These limits led to his breakthrough. "He didn't need to think outside the box," Mr. Epstein writes, "so much as he needed the right box in which to work."
"In the abstract," Mr. Epstein writes, "we often overvalue limitless freedom and choice." One survey he cites found that most people believe that "total freedom" spurs creativity. But from art to entrepreneurship, he argues, constraints can unleash rather than stifle great work: "In seeking more freedom we frequently hamper our best efforts, because what we really need are helpful boundaries."
Mr. Epstein, a journalist and the author of "Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World" (2019), shares stories of people who either could have used more constraints or who used them wisely. The engineers who worked for General Magic, a company from the 1990s that had almost unlimited funding and some of the world's top tech talent, overloaded their early iPhone-like product with features and thus couldn't produce something people would use. Without constraints, Mr. Epstein writes, "we have a deep-seated compulsion always to add."
Johann Sebastian Bach composed some of his best works by hewing to a self-imposed fugal format. (I would add that, as a church musician, Bach also benefited from the weekly deadline of Sunday.) Isabel Allende, a novelist, always begins writing new books on Jan. 8 to force her brain into creative mode. Keith Jarrett improvised his celebrated 1975 live album, "The Koln Concert," on a defective piano. The constraints of a limited instrument forced him to come up with new approaches to playing that wouldn't otherwise have been necessary.
Some of the more interesting sections of this briskly written book examine the psychological reasons why constraints can lead to creative breakthroughs. "Because the brain is naturally inclined to avoid effortful thinking and to rely instead on familiar patterns," Mr. Epstein writes, "complete freedom tends to lead to unoriginal ideas, simply repeating what is known. Constraints push the brain beyond its default tendencies, forcing it to engage in deeper problem-solving." Tell people to write a poem and they'll mostly write garbage. But give them a form to follow and they'll likely produce something more interesting.
Mr. Epstein considers how a theory of constraints might make it possible for us to get more work done. Since attention is finite, for instance, many of us would benefit from the artificial constraint of leaving our phones in the other room and checking email less frequently. He also recommends limiting a given day's to-do list. Mr. Epstein used to make long lists that compelled multitasking and induced anxiety.
Now, he writes, "at the top of each list is one single thing that, if accomplished, will mean it was a good day." This forced prioritizing means that he chooses something worth doing, does it and moves forward.
"Inside the Box" has many fascinating stories but occasionally stretches the theme a little thin. One chapter, for instance, explores how enforceable, objective contract rules make female entrepreneurs in Zambia more likely to partner with men, who otherwise tend to take advantage of them. But while rules against theft and fraud might technically be constraints, they aren't quite the same thing as the creative constraints celebrated elsewhere in the book. It is hard to picture many people arguing against rules prohibiting fraud in the same way they might object to limits on their freedom for the sake of creativity.
Mr. Epstein pays only lip service to the idea that constraints aren't always beneficial. "It goes without saying," he writes, "that constraints can be harmful -- too little time, too little money, too little autonomy." Elsewhere he notes that "it would be ludicrous to suggest that all constraints are creatively generative." But he quickly moves on to discuss bloated, overfunded companies without much consideration of the great businesses that never got started because someone lacked access to capital and connections.
Mr. Epstein writes at length about how Virginia Woolf used creative constraints to develop her modernist novels. But he doesn't pursue her idea that "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction." There are many novels that don't exist because the would-be author didn't have a babysitter. When Mr. Epstein laments the "excessive autonomy I constructed for myself," it is hard not to cringe thinking of the many people in this world whose lives truly would be better with fewer constraints.
Still, Mr. Epstein is correct when he writes that smart limits can be helpful in a world where "freedom and choice have proliferated." When everything is an option, nothing is. Rather than try to learn about the world through the entirety of the internet, one might choose, say, to read five newspaper articles in the morning. "When exploration is too free," Mr. Epstein writes, "it becomes difficult to learn anything at all." Boxing ourselves in may be the ultimate way to think outside the box.
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Ms. Vanderkam's books include "Big Time: A Simple Path to Time Abundance" and "Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters."” [1]
1. The Benefits Of Boundaries. Vanderkam, Laura. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 14 May 2026: A13.
