I like to read two books at the same time. One book is fiction, the other non-fiction. I find this has two benefits:

1. I read more. When I start to lose interest in one of the books, I read the other proportionately more. This way, I don’t stop reading. I just read something else for a while.
2. Reading fiction and non-fiction at the same time helps to link seemingly unrelated ideas together.

In this case, an epic fantasy story got me thinking about scope creep and why it’s important to apply consistent constraints to projects, goals and even relationships.

The Stormlight Archive is a ten book fantasy series set in a world where characters can use the light from violent storms to perform special abilities - but only if they have sworn certain oaths. The first two books in the series are two of the best books I have ever read. Unfortunately, the next three books incrementally fall into what I call The Fantasy Trap. The fifth book, Wind and Truth, falls so far into the trap that I won’t be reading the second half of the series when it comes out.

The Fantasy Trap

The Fantasy Trap is the fantasy author’s version of scope creep. It’s why I normally stay away from the fantasy genre. For me, a large part of what makes a fantasy novel successful is how well its fictional world is defined. A key element to this is consistency. If the rules aren’t well defined they can be changed and interpreted as a way to overcome the challenges that characters face. Poorly and inconsistently defined rules undermine the author’s ability to create and resolve tension in the story.

One of the main criticisms of the first book in the series, The Way of Kings, is that the plot moves too slowly. To me, this is what makes The Way of Kings such a compelling novel. Sanderson takes the time to define the rules of the Stormlight universe - and then makes sure to stick to them. The result is that when characters face and overcome challenges, and then grow as a result, it feels real and believable.

By the fifth book The Fantasy Trap has a firm hold on the series. Several supporting characters have been introduced and a few side stories are told in parallel to the main story - most of which don’t seem to be relevant and detract from the main storyline.

I’m sure there are plans for these additional characters and storylines, but even with the novellas they add too many distractions. It sometimes even feels like Sanderson has given the side stories more thought than major main line plot points.

Particularly in Wind and Truth, Sanderson starts to regularly abuse the rules of his universe to get his characters out of trouble. He opens up the rules of the Stormlight universe so much that they don’t feel like rules anymore. It isn’t world building. It’s undermining an already well defined set of rules - and the series is worse because of it.

Constraints Matter

The Stormlight Archive shows that constraints matter. When the rules of the Stormlight universe were limited, they could be followed. This gave the story direction and helped give meaning to each character’s story.

The idea that constraints give direction and meaning is applicable outside of story-telling too. Sure it would be awesome if the product could fly and cure cancer - but is that really what it needs to do? Sure it would be fantastic to have a hundred friends - but can you really maintain all those relationships? Sure it would fun to learn seven musical instruments - but do you actually have the discipline and time to do that?

More importantly, what happens to the things that really matter when you dilute your focus? When we stop thinking about constraints and allow the scope of what we are doing to expand freely, adding side characters and side stories to our novel, the main story suffers. The end product is worse. The relationships that matter become diluted. We fail to master even a single instrument.

In Deep Work, Cal Newport dedicates a whole chapter to deciding what to focus on. Just because something adds value, it doesn’t mean that it is worth focussing on. Everything has a cost to the benefit that it provides.

Managing Scope Creep

Scope creep is everywhere and is widely discussed in the business world. There are many methods for managing scope creep. One of my favourites is to use abstraction to limit the scope.

I’d like to focus on one particular method in this post. It’s an idea that I first encountered in Tiago Forte’s Building a Second Brain. Building a Second Brain talks about Divergent and Convergent thinking.

• Divergent - where we expose ourselves to as many ideas as possible.
• Convergent - where we work with the ideas we already have.

Both modes are required to produce something. Divergent mode is where the ideas come from. Convergent mode is where the ideas are glued together to produce something.

Wind and Truth fell short of the high standard set by The Way of Kings because Sanderson stayed in divergent mode for too long.

At some point, you have to switch from divergence to convergence. If you don’t, you’ll be stuck in an endless sea of ideas.

A Trick for Knowledge Workers

One method that I use to make sure that I don’t get stuck in divergent mode is to leave the digital world. The internet is the best tool we have ever had for divergent mode thinking. For the same reasons that make it brilliant for divergent mode thinking, it is terrible for convergent mode thinking.

As a knowledge worker, it’s easy to think that more is better. However, with so much information so easily accessible, it’s even easier to get stuck researching and not doing.

Whenever it is time to produce, I switch from divergent to convergent mode by turning off my computer and getting out a book or some paper and a pen instead.

This cuts me off from any new ideas and forces me to work with what I’ve got. It’s a brutal way of accepting that I might not have the optimal solution - and that’s exactly how progress is made.

I do this even when I am coding. When I return to the computer after some convergent mode thought, I have a direction in which to move.

The Joy of Reading

This is why I read. A fantasy book has connected scope creep, relationships, goal setting and abstraction together!

I’d like to end by pointing out that although I did not enjoy Wind and Truth as much as the rest of the series, I still read all 1300 pages of the book in two weeks. The reason my Stormlight journey ends with Wind and Truth is that Wind and Truth completely changed the rules of the Stormlight universe. For me, that takes away any hope of believable character development in the next half of the series.

Wind and Truth is actually a really good book. It’s the precedent that it sets that pushes me away from the series.