#597 How thinking inside the box will lead to more opportunities for your squiggly career.

Sarah Ellis (0:00)

Hi, I'm Helen. And I'm Sarah.

Helen Tupper (0:01)

And you're listening to the Squiggly Careers Podcast, a weekly podcast where we borrow brilliance from things we are watching at home or reading on the way to work or talking about with each other, just random things that inspire us and help us think about different ideas that you can put into action with your career. And today is one of the slightly more, I don't know- Left field? Left field, I don't know what to call it. What are we borrowing brilliance from today, Sarah?

Sarah Ellis (0:27)

A box.

Helen Tupper (0:29)

A box. It will make sense when we get- Tell us a bit more about the box so people know where we're going with it.

Sarah Ellis (0:35)

Well, the more sort of conventional answer is a box and a book. A box and a book. Okay. So David Epstein, who wrote Range, who's been on the podcast before, has a new book out. He doesn't write books very often, actually. He's not someone who churns them out all the time. Maybe like us.

Helen Tupper (0:53)

We're comparing to the people that have produced three books since 2020

Sarah Ellis (0:57)

Yeah. There's reasons for that. But anyway, but he doesn't write. I can't remember when Rage came out, but it would have been a little while ago now. He's always really thoughtful and well-researched. His new book is called Inside the Box, How Constraints Make Us Better.

There are some people that you think, whatever they write, I would always read. I feel like he is one of those people. Yeah. That's a good question, actually. Who are those people?

Helen Tupper (1:24)

Amy Edmondson, Linda Gratton, Adam Grant.

Sarah Ellis (1:27)

I do read all of those people, because that's what you're interested in. Adam Morgan, who we'll come on to today. I'd always read anything he'd written.

But the idea of the book is that constraints can work for you, and actually help to make you more creative. And he starts off by saying, actually, you know, like Matrix, where it's like, imagine there is no spoon. Imagine there is no box.

Helen Tupper (1:54)

Did she say imagine there is no spoon?

Sarah Ellis (1:56)

Yeah, from Matrix.

Helen Tupper (1:57)

Spoon? Is there a spoon in The Matrix?

Sarah Ellis (1:59)

Yeah, she, you know, the bendy spoon. Okay, I've got a nine year old, who's got quite into Matrix, and I feel like I might have gone quite.

Helen Tupper (2:07)

That's so funny, because normally people say like, red pill, blue pill, when they're talking about The Matrix.

Sarah Ellis (2:13)

That's like a next level. I feel like that is quite a big moment in the film.

Helen Tupper (2:18)

Definitely a bit of a kidding now.

Sarah Ellis (2:20)

We'll get distracted. This is where our podcast goes off the rails.

Helen Tupper (2:23)

Okay, no, we'll go back to the box.

Sarah Ellis (2:24)

Okay, right. First of all, so imagine there is no box. Yes, I got it.

Which I have to say, I find quite appealing. Like at least on the surface, I'm like, endless options, blank piece of paper, infinite. You can sort of do what you want, go where you want. And actually, I think what people find is that when that is their context, actually, it can end up being demotivating. It can be overwhelming. And there is an example in the book of like a tech company where they did have like endless resources.

Helen Tupper (2:59)

Yeah.

Sarah Ellis (3:00)

A lot of the people I think were like ex Apple or they'd all come from this place. And they kind of came up with this company, got magic in it that I'd never heard of, but they were like, they got all these brilliant people, so much investment and sort of just couldn't produce anything because it was almost just like they could just do whatever they wanted. And that constraints actually can be quite helpful.

Helen Tupper (3:22)

Is it like, you know, when you're at the supermarket and there's like too many, too much choice and then you get like the analysis paralysis thing and people can't make the choice for as much easier if you just got a couple, a couple of variants to pick from.

Sarah Ellis (3:33)

Yeah. And I think the interesting thing in the book, if you do read it, is there are loads of stories and examples of when constraints have made people more creative. And I think if we're thinking like, well, why, why should we care about this? Like, why does this matter in the context of our squiggly career? You and I talk a lot about, I think, creative thinking, which is something that is relevant in all of our roles, feels like it's more important than ever.