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layout: post
title: "Consensus vs Constraint Arguments"
date: 2026-09-06
---

Recall two arguments from your life: an argument about who is moral, and an argument about what a team needs to buy to build something. We’ll call this the *consensus* argument and the *constraint* argument. One argument moves and flows to discover. The other stops and repeats, like a mayday distress call. It is often difficult to find an agreed definition in a *consensus* argument. In a *constraint* argument, agreement eventually happens (or the project stops).

Changing definitions to fit the present is fun in improv, and in a *consensus* argument, it lets everyone see who follows who quickly, which scales very well in millions of people. A *constraint* argument, on the other hand, does not usually scale well. First of all, how many people feel moved to look at a constantly changing spreadsheet? So we often use *consensus* arguments to find people to follow that will have the *constraint* arguments for us. They in turn tend to delegate the *constraint* arguments to subordinates.

Definitions change in *consensus* arguments to fit the moment. If everyone involved remembers this, they can flip back to more standardized definitions.

A problem happens when the people who are supposed to be having a *constraint* argument *forget* to leave the *consensus* argument mode, and cannot go back to *constraint* arguments. A sort of getting high on one’s own supply, which has occurred systematically with many of our rulers in the last handful of generations.

Historically when this happened, some other group of *constraint*-aware rulers would eventually replace them. With unprecedented access to energy and an unusually well-behaved populace, we found a way to simply continue like this. Costs that would have been apparent to a subsistence society can be hidden in an energy-abundant one for centuries.

So any time you’re in a conversation that approaches disagreement, it’s helpful to delineate between a *consensus* and *constraint* argument. While in the past, *consensus* arguments were of utmost importance because of the ability of the people around you to work around the *constraints* necessary to get you banished, ostracized, or killed, that is no longer the case in most groups today. You may also gauge how to prioritize time by whether the likely argument in a gathering will be a *constraint* or *consensus* argument, whichever your preference.