General intelligence is a function of constraint, not open-endedness.

Our brains actually aren't that general, we strongly bake in assumptions about the world that are nearly always true.

Open-endedness has combinatorics that quickly become overwhelming.

So you need constraints and heuristics that cleanly cut off 99% of the wrong things.

That implies the things you set as your foundations, which provide the constraints, are critical.

Picking good constraints is the secret art of product development.