👋 Hi fellow dumdums,

We’ve all heard it before: Simple ideas win. Keep it clear. Cut the fluff. Do one thing well. That’s why we love slogans, minimalism, and Silicon Valley mantras that sound like they belong on a yoga studio’s chalkboard.

But what if the real secret to great ideas isn’t making them simple—but making them less… constrained?

New AI research (yes, even robots are thinking about this) suggests that big ideas don’t succeed because they’re simple. They succeed because they remove the right constraints. In other words, making something less complicated isn’t as powerful as making it more flexible.

Which means maybe we’ve been asking the wrong question. Instead of “How do I simplify this?” we should be asking “What dumb rule is holding this idea back?”

Let’s get dumb.

“Weak Constraints”

If weak constraints—not simplicity—lead to better ideas, let’s look at some “dumb” innovations that worked by removing the right limitations:

• Wikipedia vs. Encyclopedias – Instead of limiting knowledge to experts, Wikipedia let literally anyone contribute. The result? The largest (and occasionally weirdest) knowledge base ever.

• YouTube vs. TV – Instead of requiring a fancy studio, YouTube let anyone with a camera broadcast to millions. Now, random vloggers outrank cable networks.

• Airbnb vs. Hotels – Instead of needing to own property, Airbnb turned extra rooms into mini-hotels. Suddenly, your aunt’s guest room became a business.

• Spotify vs. Albums – Instead of selling individual songs, Spotify ditched ownership entirely and made music a never-ending stream.

• Duolingo vs. Language Classes – Instead of relying on classrooms, Duolingo turned learning into a game. Now, people practice Spanish because they don’t want to let down a judgmental green owl.

None of these ideas necessarily made things simpler. They just removed a constraint that didn’t need to exist.

loosey-goosification (loo-see-GOO-sih-fih-KAY-shun) n.

1. The gradual process by which a rigid system, rule, or personality discovers its inner water fowl and learns to go with the flow. See also: when your type-A friend discovers meditation

2. The delightful phenomenon of watching something precisely engineered surrender to chaos, like a military marching band spontaneously breaking into the Chicken Dance.

Usage: "The corporate dress code underwent significant loosey-goosification after the CEO attended Burning Man, culminating in 'Tutu Tuesday' becoming official company policy."

Etymology: Derived from the ancient practice of observing how geese, nature's most efficiently disorganized creatures, somehow manage to both have their ducks in a row and be completely ridiculous about it. Combined with the scientific suffix "-ification," because nothing makes a silly word sound important quite like adding five more syllables to it.

Antonyms: stick-in-the-muddening, fun-police-ification, bureaucratosis

Your Loosey-Goosification Toolkit:

✓ Spot the Constraint – What’s the rule that’s holding this back?

✓ Mess With It – What happens if you ignore, weaken, or break that rule?

✓ Test It Out – Try a small, low-risk version of your idea.

✓ Let the System Adjust – Instead of forcing simplicity, see how things evolve naturally with fewer limits.

Try this at work, in your projects, or even in your personal habits. You might just dumb your way into something brilliant.

The Constraint-Breaking Challenge

Find a frustrating rule, limit, or assumption you’ve always accepted. Now imagine:

What happens if you just remove it?

Examples of Removing Constraints and the Weird, Cool Outcomes

💡 Constraint: Museums have to be quiet.
🎨 Remove it: What if museums encouraged loud debates, live music, or even dancing? Art would become a social event instead of a hushed, solo experience. Imagine karaoke night at the Louvre or a jazz band playing alongside Monet’s water lilies.

💡 Constraint: Restaurants have menus.
🍽 Remove it: What if chefs just made whatever they felt like that day and you found out when it arrived? It’d be part surprise, part adventure, and maybe even the end of menu anxiety forever.

💡 Constraint: Gyms are for exercising.
💪 Remove it: What if gyms were also arcades? Treadmills that only move if you’re playing a racing game, punching bags that light up with every hit, weightlifting with actual treasure at the end. Working out would feel more like winning than suffering.

Thanks for exploring the power of removing dumb rules with me today!

🎤 YOUR TURN: Tell me about a time you ignored a “normal” rule and stumbled into something unexpectedly great. Did you skip a step, ignore a tradition, or question a system—only to realize it worked better that way? The best story wins a signed copy of my book, Dumbify.

Stay unconstrained,
David

P.S. Know someone who keeps making things harder than they need to be? Forward this email—sometimes the best ideas come from realizing a rule doesn’t actually exist. 🚀