okay serious question, 

say you’re starting over or starting from scratch. how do you (i mean you, reading this right now) how do you put constraints around the seemingly infinite # of possibilities in order to form a structure to start moving in the direction it want to go in?

how do you overcome analysis paralysi

Evangelizing Incentives That Combine Self Interest With Collective Benefit & A Few Other Things I'm Still Trying To Figure Out

There's always a prior to build on top of; identify that. Then start surveying—breadth-first or depth-first, doesn't  matter. At some point during the survey there'll be an implicit/explicit attraction/aversion. Chase that and, hey presto, constraints!