Limited resources drive innovation
Written by John Teel.
When the U.S. government restricted the sale of advanced AI chips to China, it was meant to slow down their progress.
But, as you’ve likely heard in the news, it appears to have had the opposite effect.
Um, oops.
Instead of slowing Chinese innovation, it forced companies like DeepSeek to be more innovative.
Because of this lack of resources they had to create more efficient ways to run AI models using less powerful hardware.
This reminded me of when I first started programming computers as a kid on my Commodore 64.
Yes, I’m dating myself here, but I loved that computer!
Instead of just playing games on it, I was working on my first entrepreneurial project…a GUI-based word processor I named Ritzy Writer 64.
Pretty cool name, huh?
I poured everything into making it as efficient as possible.
With only 64KB of RAM, I had no choice but to code in assembly language, squeezing every last bit of performance out of that machine.
Every byte counted as did every CPU clock cycle, nothing was wasted.
Unfortunately, Ritzy Writer 64 never made it to market—my hard drive crashed, wiping out months of work.
Needless to say, ever since then I’ve been obsessed with backups for some reason😊
Back then I remember thinking: as computer hardware gets faster, software speed will increase at the same rate too.
But that’s not what happened.
Instead, I saw that the extra computing power encouraged sloppy programming.
When developers had lots of memory and CPU cycles to spare, they stopped caring as much about efficiency.
Faster computers didn’t necessarily equate to faster software—they just made it more practical to write inefficient code.
This same lesson applies to entrepreneurs building new electronic products.
Everyone thinks more funding or more resources will solve their problems.
But in reality, having less often forces you to be smarter and more creative.
I’ve seen well-funded entrepreneurs and businesses rush headfirst into manufacturing, skipping critical steps because they had money to burn.
For example, instead of validating their product, they jumped straight into mass production—only to realize later that customers didn’t want what they built.
Without constraints, they took unnecessary risks.
On the other hand, I’ve seen entrepreneurs with limited resources achieve extraordinary things.
They can’t afford to take unnecessary risks or cut corners.
They start small, test rigorously, and iterate based on real-world feedback from users.
They focus on efficiency, not just in their products but in their entire process.
Limited funding forces you to make sure every dollar is spent wisely.
DeepSeek proved that AI doesn’t need massive computer power, it just needs more innovative software.
Likewise, you don’t need millions of dollars to build a great product, you just need to be efficient and more creative.
It’s not the unlimited resources that make you successful. It’s the constraints that push you to innovate and find a better way.
There is no bigger bang for your buck than the value you’ll get inside my Hardware Academy – where you’ll learn how to thrive with minimal resources.
