Collision and Constraint

The things that made you (and Instagram)

Welcome to Better Short - Ideas expressed in 500 words or less. You can find other essays here.

The entire human existence can be attributed to two epic smashes.

1. 66 million years ago, an asteroid barely 10 km wide slammed into the Yucatan Peninsula, wiping out the dinosaurs.

2. 40 million years ago, the Indian subcontinent smashed into Asia like a rogue tectonic rebel to form the Himalayas, thus triggering an Ice Age.

Source: USGS

The odds are miraculous.

An asteroid hitting Earth is rare. Hitting that exact spot on Earth that kicked enough debris into the sky to darken the sun is astronomically low. Without this level of darkening, the 165 million-year Dinosaurian reign would never have ended, and the timid mammals would never have had a shot.

Similarly, India breaks off from Gondwana and crashes into Asia. Had it been shaped differently or traveled slightly slower, we might not have the Himalayas. No Himalayas, no massive carbon drawdown. No carbon drawdown, no Ice Age.

The Ice Age created evolutionary pressure for bigger human brains, which led to tool use and storytelling, etc.

Had these events not occurred, I wouldn’t be here writing this. You wouldn’t be here reading it. The bipedal ape that’s now toying with AI and reaching for space wouldn’t exist.

Collision (asteroid) followed by constraint (ice age).

One brought radical disruption. The other applied pressure to evolve.

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The two forces have since been in a constant interplay, leading to all progress and growth. They build revolutions in art, business, science, and tech.

Some modern examples :

• Insulin: German physicians Oscar Minkowski and Joseph von Mering removed the pancreas from a healthy dog to study its effects on digestion, but noticed that flies swarmed the dog’s urine pool (collision), thus leading them to conclude that the pancreas secreted insulin, which can control diabetes.

• Karaoke Machine: The rising jobs meant businessmen sought entertainment and stress relief through musical bands (collision), but live bands were expensive and impractical for small venues (constraint). So Daisuke Inoue created the karaoke machine, allowing individuals to sing to recorded music, spawning a global phenomenon.

• Jaws: Spielberg had the rights to a bestselling book (collision), but the mechanical shark kept breaking down (constraint). So he filmed around it, capturing shadows, music, and splashes instead of showing the shark. The suspense was born out of absence.

• Minecraft: A bored developer in 2009 (collision) with no team, no art direction, and limited tools (constraint) created a pixelated sandbox game that let players build their world. Simplicity resulted in a multi-billion-dollar game franchise.

• Instagram: In 2010, smartphones, mobile internet, and cameras all hit at once (collision), but the images were slow to upload and looked bad due to low resolution (constraint). The solution was square photos, filters, and a minimal UI. The optimization became the aesthetic.

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Can we simulate this?

1. How to create artificial collisions?

• Cross-pollinating teams. Engineers with artists. Marketers with psychologists.

• Breaking assumptions. Killing a big feature and rebuilding around what’s left.

• Seeking alien inputs. IDEO famously studied emergency rooms to improve airport check-ins.

• Creating spaces where collisions naturally happen (an argument that companies have weaponized to force employees to come to work)

2. How to impose sharp constraints?

• Time-boxing challenges aggressively.

• Cutting budgets. Capping features. Using only outdated tools for a specific period.

• Pre-defining the canvas to work with (Better Short is an example of a self-imposed 500-word constraint).

• The iPod team was told, “You have 6 months. It must fit in a jeans pocket.”

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When stuck on something, think:

• What’s colliding? Two ideas, technologies, or cultural shifts?

• What’s constraining you? Time, tools, resources?

This shift morphs “we’re stuck” to “this is the part before something breaks through.”

After all, we’re only here because of a cataclysm and chills.

Better Short,

Tyag