# How a Broken Arm Improved my French - with David Epstein

An episode of [Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1484511465), 18 Sep 2026, 43 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdrl.fm/18db03/tracking.swap.fm/track/SxlTEPDY7xDg35RXkASs/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/c0ae8c6e-22f0-4e9b-ac1c-ae390037ac53/2ec01096-8e65-43fa-8b5b-b4c8016c5756/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=7f5a4714-6b10-4ccf-a424-ae390037ac70

Last week, Cautionary Tales described the rise and fall of General Magic, the startup with too much money and too few constraints. Was General Magic really doomed from the start, and what does its fate tell us about AI, drug discovery and our love lives? David Epstein, author of Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better, joins Tim to make the case for loving limitations. For a list of sources, see the show notes at timharford.com Join our Cautionary Club to get episodes ad-free, hear bonus interviews and get an extra Cautionary Tale every month. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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