Simple is Beautiful (an ODE to Simplicity)
Simple is beautiful is one of the sentences that I repeat more at work. I say it so often that, when I start saying it, my colleagues usually interrupt me with a “yes Santi we know”.
The fact is that the principle works well for work, personal life, friends and family.
In this society of overdose of information, I cannot stress enough how important it is to make things simple.
A bit of History
As you already guessed, I did not invent the quote. The first references go thousands of years back.
A few examples of historical personalities that appreciated simplicity:
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
Leonardo da Vinci, 1452–1519
“If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.”
― Albert Einstein, 1879–1955
And my favourite:
“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”
Confucious, 551 BC — 479 BC
Living a simple life
A few years ago, around 2008, a friend of mine invited me to his house to show me how he has re-decorated his room. I was expecting fancy wardrobes a large tv, computer, decorations and all these things you usually have in your place. To my surprise, when I entered, there was almost nothing there.
One open wardrobe without doors. Two shirts and two pants were hanging and a pile of no more than ten t-shirts. I swiftly asked about the rest of the stuff, where are all your things?
He replied: “these are all my things”.
“When I wake up, I do not need to spend time debating myself on what will I wear today. I also do not need to spend a lot of time doing laundry and arranging my clothes nor cleaning because there is not much to clean. And the best part of it? If I decide to move tomorrow, I can pack everything in one suitcase. Keep all your life in one bag, Santi, it will save you a great deal of stress.”
When I left his house I was thinking to myself, this guy is crazy, only one bag? How is that even possible?
Years later and while moving to a new country to start a new life, all his remarks came back to my head. I had plenty of things to take: suitcases, musical instruments, devices, medicines. I was overwhelmed and filled with anxiety. Finally, and after a lot of internal debate, I decided to pack everything in two suitcases, only things that I will strictly need. You will not believe how relieving this was. Not only because I didn’t need to carry a lot of weight but mostly because I did not have to bother about things that I didn’t need. All this stuff was cluttering my life, and it was worrying me.
Years later, when I moved back to Europe, I applied the same principle, two suitcases with only unquestionable stuff, and it worked again.
Simple travels
One tends to overpack when we have to go on a trip. A weekend gateway with three suitcases? yes, we all have seen it or experienced it. Keep it light.
You can always buy things at your destination; there is everything everywhere, so pack light and practice simplicity. You cannot imagine how good it feels to travel with a small hand carry or a backpack, it is freedom!
Keep it simple challenge, level God: Leave for a vacation with only keys, wallet and mobile.
Simplicity at work
Work is probably where the ‘Simple is beautiful’ motto works the best. If you work in an office environment, and even if you don’t, you probably have wondered “why are they doing this or that so complicated?”.
There is a fragment of the book “The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less by Richard Koch” that perfectly illustrates complexity at work.
— As the business becomes more complex, its returns fall dramatically. This is not just because more marginal business is being taken. It is also because the act of making a business more complex depresses returns more effectively than any other means known to humanity.
The most important answer is the cost of complexity. The problem is not extra scale, but extra complexity.
Internal complexity has huge hidden costs —
Managers love complexity — This one is mine :-)
In summary, complexity ruins your productivity and ultimately slow down the performance of a business.
Simplicity applied to problems
A couple of years ago, I had the privilege to work with a Doctor in Data Science that happened to be a University Professor as well. When we first met, I was thinking of him as a genius, a magician, someone that will solve extremely complex problems with a finger click.
On my first meeting with him, I came with a challenging business question, and to my surprise, the very first thing he said was, let’s break this problem into tiny and simple parts.
I was shocked, I was expecting him to come up with a formula or a masterpiece of python code that will answer the question, and so I told him.
But he insisted: “if you want to solve the problem, you will need to answer first the simple questions”. He repeated the same technique in all our sessions, and it worked like a charm. Together we solved every problem by breaking down complexity.
Final thoughts
- Simple is not easy; do not fall in that trap. Making things simpler is hard and usually takes lots of work.
- Simple is not stupid. Many people make a very quick approximation between simplicity and lack of intelligence. Simple does not equal “for Dumbs”.
“Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple.”
C. W. Ceran
And the Ode…(be kind, is my first)
Simple is beautiful
but often undutiful
simple is not easy
but when you achieve it, is breezy
Sometimes we overcomplicate things
and we keep pulling the strings
But the more complexity we bring
the hardest is to swing
If the solution is in front of you
Then one plus one is two
Be smart
and don’t make things hard
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