SIMPLICITY = SANITY
Technology has made our lives more full, yet at the same time we’ve become uncomfortably “full.”
SIMPLICITY AND THE MARKETPLACE
The marketplace abounds with promises of simplicity. Citibank has a “simplicity” credit card, Ford has “keep it simple pricing,” and Lexmark vows to “uncomplicate” the consumer experience
Simplicity is a quality that not only evokes passionate loyalty for a product design, but also has become a key strategic tool for businesses to confront their own intrinsic complexities
HOW-TO USE THIS BOOK
The ten Laws outlined in the body of this book are generally independent of each other and can be used together or alone. There are three flavors of simplicity discussed here, where the successive set of three Laws (1 to 3, 4 to 6, and 7 to 9) correspond to increasingly complicated conditions of simplicity: basic, intermediate, and deep. Of the three clusters, basic simplicity (1 to 3) is immediately applicable to thinking about the design of a product or the layout of your living room. On the other hand, intermediate simplicity (4 to 6) is more subtle in meaning, and deep simplicity (7 to 9) ventures into thoughts that are still ripening on the vine. If you wish to save time (inaccordance with the third Law of TIME), I suggest you start with basic simplicity (1 to 3) and then skip to the tenth Law of THE ONE which sums up the entire set.
In addition to the ten Laws, I offer three Keys to achieving simplicity in the technology domain. Think of them as areas in which to invest R&D resources, or simply to keep an eye on. How these Keys, and the Laws, connect to market valuation is a new hobby of mine
TEN LAWS
THREE KEYS
Law 1 - REDUCE
The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction
The easiest way to simplify a system is to remove functionality. Today’s DVD, for instance, has too many buttons if all you want to do is play a movie. A solution could be to remove the buttons for Rewind, Forward, Eject, and so forth until only one button remains: Play.
But what if you want to replay a favorite scene? Or pause the movie while you take that all-important bathroom break? The fundamental question is, where’s the balance between simplicity and complexity?
HOW SIMPLE CAN YOU MAKE IT? ←→ HOW SIMPLE CAN IT HAVE TO BE?
On the one hand, you want a product or service to be easy to use; on the other hand you want it to do everything that a person might want it to do.
The process of reaching an ideal state of simplicity can be truly complex, so allow me to simplify it for you. The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction. When in doubt, just remove. But be careful of what you remove.
SHE’S ALWAYS RIGHT
When it is possible to reduce a system’s functionality without significant penalty, true simplification is realized. When everything that can be removed is gone, a second battery of methods can be employed. I call these methods SHE: SHRINK, HIDE, EMBODY
Law 2 ORGANIZE
Organization makes a system of many appear fewer
The home is usually the first battleground that comes to mind when facing the daily challenge of managing complexity. Stuff just seems to multiply. There are three consistent strategies for achieving simplicity in the living realm: 1) buy a bigger house, 2) put everything you don’t really need into storage, or 3) organize your existing assets in a systematic fashion.
However, in the long term an effective scheme for organization is necessary to achieve definitive success in taming complexity. In other words, the more challenging question of “What goes with what?” needs to be added to the list. For instance in a closet there can be groupings of like items such as neckties, shirts, slacks, jacket, socks, and shoes. A thousand piece wardrobe can be organized into six categories, and be dealt with at the aggregate level and achieve greater manageability. Organization makes a system of many appear fewer. Of course this will only hold if the number of groups is significantly less than the number of items to be organized.
Working with fewer objects, concepts, and functions—and fewer corresponding buttons to press—makes life simpler when faced with the alternative of having too many choices.
SLIP: WHAT GOES WITH WHAT?
Matching up pairs of socks as they’ve just come out of the wash is easy when they are all the same make and model.
Seeing the forest(s) from the trees is a common goal that is made easier by an ad hoc process I call SLIP: SORT, LABEL, INTEGRATE,PRIORITIZE
As presented above, SLIP is a free-form process for finding answers to the question of “What goes with what?” The many little bits of cut-up post-it notes on my desk are the system of chaos brought to order with my fingertips. Finding the organizational scheme that works best for you is a wise investment
TAB(LES)
Getting organized is the theme of this Law, and slip is one of many ways to get you started
The visual presentation of information is a topic that I’m supposed to know a few things about as it represents a cornerstone of my career. Yet no matter how much I learn about the intricacies of graphic design
THE GESTALT OF THE IPOD
In both perceiving and visually representing the natural organization of objects, we are supported by the mind’s powerful ability to detect and form patterns. With matters of the visual mind, the school of Gestalt psychology is particularly relevant. Gestalt psychologists believe that there are a variety of mechanisms inside the brain that lend to pattern-forming. For instance, when you see a box made with a single connected penstroke that is not completely closed, your mind can essentially “fill in the blank” and imagine it closed. Another exampleof Gestaltism is the tendency to mentally continue a series of drawn figures like “circle, circle, circle” with another circle.
Allow me to draw an illustration that helps to complete the gestalt of Gestalt psychology.
What’s the difference between the cluster of 30 dots displayed on the left, and those on the right? The answer is simple. On the left there is no order to the randomly placed dots; on the right there is a clear grouping of some of the dots. We immediately pick out the group of dots as a “whole,” even though it’s com-posed of many little dots. In effect by gathering the dots into the group as on the right, we have simplified the otherwise haphazard display of 30 dots by giving order to the chaos.
SQUINT TO OPEN YOUR EYES
Groups are good; too many groups are bad because they counteract the goal of grouping in the first place. Blurred groupings are powerful because they can appear even more simple, but at the cost of becoming more abstract, less concrete. Hence simplicity can be a creative way of looking at the world that is driven by design. It feeds the mind’s natural hunger to solve puzzles and to find the right gestalt.
The best designers in the world all squint when they look at something. They squint to see the forest from the trees—to find the right balance. Squint at the world. You will see more, by seeing less.
Law 3 TIME
Savings in time feel like simplicity
The average person spends at least an hour a day waiting in line. Add to this the uncountable seconds, minutes, weeks spent waiting for something that might have no line at all.
Some of that waiting is subtle. We wait for water to come out of the faucet when we turn the knob. We wait for water on the stove to boil, and start to feel impatient. We wait for the sea-sons to change. Some of the waiting we do is less subtle, and can often be tense or annoying: waiting for a Web page to load, waiting in bumper-to-bumper traffic, or waiting for the results of a dreaded medical test
No one likes to suffer the frustration of waiting.
Achieving notable efficiencies in speed are exemplified by overnight delivery services like FedEx and even the ordering process for a McDonald’s hamburger. When forced to wait, life seems unnecessarily complex. Savings in time feel like simplicity. And we are thankfully loyal when it happens, which is rare
Saving time is really about reducing time, and she as introduced in the first Law can help us. she says that we can realize the perception of reduction through shrinking and hiding, and can also make up for what is lost by embodying what is most important in subtle ways. Let’s see if she is right again
SHE: SHRINKING TIME
As a prototypical “busy guy” who’s trying to stay sane, I’m personally familiar with the goal of shrinking time. I’m the guy who unties his shoes and removes his laptop from his bag before he reaches the table at airport security, in the hope of passing through with the speed of an Olympic downhill skier. Getting home before the kids are asleep is another daily challenge.
Of the infinite ways to whittle away at time, a superior solution is to remove all constraints, as I learned upon the introduction of Apple’s iPod Shuffle
Giving up the option of choice, and letting a machine choose for you, is a radical approach to shrinking the time we might spend otherwise fumbling with the iPod’s scroll-wheel
A version of this future is already with us today. Go toAmazon.comand it recommends a handful of books you might like, based on the preferences of people it deems similar to you
SHE: HIDING AND EMBODYING TIME
Shrinking the time of a process can sometimes only go so far, and so an alternative means to “saving” time is to hide its pas-sage by simply removing time displays from the environment
Telling people how much time they have left to wait is a humane practice that is becoming more popular. Witness the increasing number of crosswalk signals that have their own progress bar or numerical countdown display to show the time that remains. When waiting on hold for a service representative, an automated voice tells you how many minutes you may have until you speak to a human.
Time can be embodied through a more deceptive approach—using “styling” to create the illusion of motion and speed
Styling is a form of deception that, although misleading, can be a desirable attribute from a consumer perspective. We need all the positive reinforcement we can get in order to feel that we are moving forward. Don’t we?
TICK TICK TICK
Making critical processes run faster is a fantastic benefit to humankind. However fast doesn’t come cheap
When speeding-up a process is not an option, giving extra care to a customer makes the experience of waiting more tolerable. I appreciate the free cookies and other samples in line at the Whole Foods store during the Thanksgiving season as the checkout queue snakes across the entire store. Saving time is thus the tradeoΩ between the quantitatively fast versus the qualitatively fast:
HOW CAN YOU MAKE THE - WAIT SHORTER?
HOW CAN YOU MAKE THE - WAIT MORE TOLERABLE?
Restated in the terminology of SHE,SHRINK the time constraints on one hand and HIDE or EMBODY the dimension of time on the other hand. Saving time or staying in step with the flow of time—whichever costs the least to implement—will usually win the day
Law 4 - LEARN
Knowledge makes everything simpler
So while the screw is a simple design, you need to know which way to turn it. Knowledge makes everything simpler. This is true for any object, no matter how difficult. The problem with taking time to learn a task is that you often feel you are wasting time, a violation of the third Law. We are well aware of the dive-in-head-first approach—“I don’t need the instructions, let me just do it.” But in fact this method often takes longer than following the directions in the manual.
Something as simple as teaching another person a basic concept might seem trivial in comparison to managing a complex supply chain or programming a supercomputer. However, anyone who has tried to teach a child the seemingly trivial task of tying shoelaces may suspect that writing code for Google’s page-ranking algorithm is easier. As a professor at MIT, I freely admit that I’m still figuring out how to teach as I go. The single most helpful thing for my teaching was to experience the other side of learning: I became a student in an MBA program.
Becoming a student has allowed me to relive the humbling experience of being a freshman at MIT and feeling like the dumbest one on campus. Being a professor is the easiest thing in the world—you just have to act like you know all the answers. Being a student is much harder because you not only have to wring the answers from the cryptic professor, but you also have to make sense of them.
As a student and an educator, I present a few of my design-informed approaches to what I deem as “good learning.” They represent a work-in-progress that patiently awaits refinement through the natural evolution of a living concept.
USE YOUR BRAIN
Learning occurs best when there is a desire to attain specific knowledge. Sometimes that need is edification, which is itself a noble goal. Although in the majority of cases, having some kind of palpable reward, whether a letter grade or a candy bar, is necessary to motivate most people. Whether there is an intrinsic motivation like pride or an extrinsic motivation like a free cruise to the Caribbean waiting at the very end, the journey one must take to reap the reward is better when made tolerable
The doctrine of “the carrot or the stick” points to a choice between positive and negative motivation—a reward versus a punishment. I disagree when teachers give their students candy and other perks for correct answers, but I also disagree with a colleague at MIT who throws erasers at students that fall asleep during class
Instead, my ten years of data as a professor show that giving students a seemingly insurmountable challenge is the best motivator to learn. It is said that a massive amount of home-work is a kind of reward for the average over-achieving MIT student. But after recently experiencing student life myself, I’ve lost my masoch*stic attitude in favor of a holistic approach:
By now you’ve tired of my acronyms like SHE and SLIP so I won’t tell you that the first letters of my mantra above spell BRAIN
The first step in conveying theBASICis to assume the position of the first-time learner. As the expert, playing this role is not impossible, but it is best ceded to a focus group or any other gathering of external participants. Observing what fails to make sense to the non-expert, and then following that trail successively to the very end of the knowledge chain is the critical path to success. Gathering these truths is worthwhile but can be time consuming or else done poorly. Hiring experts in the study of people, like anthropologists and human factors designers, is an effective method proven by the success of my friends at the international design consultancy IDEO. Then again, if you can’t afford to retain IDEO and are willing to violate the third Law by taking a bit more TIME, the easiest way to learn the basics is to teach the basics yourself
REPEAT-ting yourself can be embarrassing, especially if you are self-conscious—which most everyone is. But there’s no need to feel ashamed, because repetition works and everyone does it,including the US President and other leaders. Simplicity and repetition are related, as supported bySlate.com’s story on the re-election of George W. Bush in 2004 headlined: “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity.” On the campaign trail Bush delivered the same simple message on terrorism and Iraq repeatedly.
AVOID-ing desperation is something to target when learning is concerned. We all want to “wow” people from the beginning with the newest bells and whistles in an amazing new product, but sometimes “wow” can become “woah” and you need an aspirin to cope with the anxiety of the overwhelming aspects of the new. I dread upgrading software on my computer because I know how eager the new program will be to tell me its latest and most wondrous features
INSPIRATIONis the ultimate catalyst for learning: internal motivation trumps external reward. Strong belief in someone, or else some greater power like God, helps to fuel belief in your-self and gives you direction
Feeling safe (by avoiding desperation), feeling confident (by mastering the basics), and feeling instinctive (by conditioning through repetition) all satisfy rational needs. Inspiration from others serves a higher goal that, at least for me, is the true reward. The practice of education is the highest form of intellectual philanthropy.
Lastly, NEVER forget to repeat yourself. Might I have already said that?
RELATE-TRANSLATE-SURPRISE !
Design starts by leveraging the human instinct to relate, followed by translating the relationship into a tangible object or service, and then ideally adding a little surprise at the end to make your audience’s efforts worthwhile. Or writing these steps in shorthand: RELATE-TRANSLATE-SURPRISE
Design culture can also affect the way in which RELATE-TRANSLATE-SURPRISE operates. A more rational, typically German approach to design will diligently RELATE-TRANSLATE, but not necessarily warrant the SURPRISE ending
Metaphors are useful platforms for transferring a large body of existing knowledge from one context to another with minimal, often imperceptible, effort on the part of the person crossing the conceptual bridge. But metaphors are only deeply engaging if they SURPRISE along some unexpected, positive dimension.
THE REAL REWARD
Growing up, I found it odd that my classmates were rewarded with bicycles and cash incentives for getting good grades. When presenting this hard data to my parents their response was, “How lucky your friends are!” End of story
Some reward systems stem from recognizing progress itself as the payoff
Difficult tasks seem easier when they are “need to know” rather than “nice to know.
Law 5 - DIFFERENCES
Simplicity and complexity need each other.
Nobody wants to eat only dessert. Even a child that is allowed to eat ice cream three meals a day will eventually tire his sweet tooth. By the same token, nobody wants to have only simplicity. Without the counterpoint of complexity, we could not recognize simplicity when we see it. Our eyes and senses thrive, and sometimes recoil, whenever we experience differences.
Acknowledging contrast helps to identify qualities that we desire—which are often subject to change. I don’t personally prefer the color pink, but I do like it as a dash of brightness in a drab sea of olive green. The pink appears bold and vibrant as compared with its dark and muted surroundings. We know how to appreciate something better when we can compare it to something else.
Simplicity and complexity need each other. The more complexity there is in the market, the more that something simpler stands out. And because technology will only continue to grow in complexity, there is a clear economic benefit to adopting a strategy of simplicity that will help set your product apart. That said, establishing a feeling of simplicity in design requires making complexity consciously available in some explicit form. This relationship can be manifest in either the same object or experience, or in contrast with other offerings in the same category—like the simplicity of the iPod in comparison to its more complex competitors in the MP3 player market.
Within the same experience, finding the right balance between simplicity and complexity is difficult. Achieving a situation where the differences enhance, instead of cancel out, either’s existence is something of a subtle art that I am still unclear about. The closest approximation to a solution I have found is in the concept of rhythm, which is grounded in the modulation of difference.
Think of a mathematical graph going upwards to complexity, then sloping downward to simplicity, then upward to complexity, and back down again ad infinitum. You can think of this happening over time, like a song that changes throughout its development; or else you can think of it as happening in space, like a painting where your eyes travel across the image and the experience changes. The rhythm of how simplicity and complexity occur in time and space holds the key
NO RHYTHM AT ALL
In the age of electronic networking with services like LinkedIn and Friendster, the practice of sharing business cards is gradually losing its value. Nonetheless, having been raised in the business culture of Japan, where the exchange of cards is a for-mal act, I am still attached to the custom of presenting my business card held between thumb and forefingers of both hands while politely bowing.
There are some rhythms that we welcome their monotony, such as the changing of the seasons from winter, spring, summer, fall, and back to winter again
Law 6 - CONTEXT
What lies in the periphery of simplicity is definitely not peripheral
I was once advised by my teacher Nicholas Negroponte to become a light bulb instead of a laser beam, at an age and time in my career when I was all focus. His point was that you can either brighten a single point with laser precision, or else use the same light to illuminate everything around you
What lies in the periphery of simplicity is definitely not peripheral. The sixth Law emphasizes the importance of what might become lost during the design process. That which appears to be of immediate relevance may not be nearly as important compared to everything else around. Our goal is to achieve a kind of enlightened shallowness. It is befitting that we start this trek by talking about nothing.
NOTHING IS SOMETHING
Science holds that entropy in the universe is always increasing. What does this mean in lay terms? A child opens an illustrated story book, flips through the pictures, and sees an empty part of the page. A crayon clenched in her fist, she moves her hand towards the blank space. What is she likely to do? Fill in the emptiness, of course
AMBIENCE IS EVERYWHERE
The experience of riding an airplane can be one of uncomfortable isolation in almost all of the senses. Where there is so little of significance to feel, every minor sensation seems annoyingly amplified.
Small things in the environment matter more when you are forced to pay attention to them.
Creating white space—or, translating that to a room, “clean space”—enables the foreground to stand out from the background. However, the reality is that in everyday life we are unlikely to clear everything out with the ease of hitting the “delete” key on the word processor
COMFORTABLY LOST
There is an important tradeoff between being completely lost in the unknown and completely found in the familiar. Too familiar can have the positive aspect of making complete sense, which to some can seem boring; too unknown can have the negative connotations of danger, which to some can seem a thrill. Thus there is a tradeoff between being found versus lost:
HOW DIRECTED CAN I STAND TO FEEL?
HOW DIRECTIONLESS CAN I AFFORD TO BE?
Your feeling of youth, state of health, and sense of adventure will dictate your preference for safety versus excitement to find the right balance where you can become “comfortably lost.
Complexity implies the feeling of being lost; simplicity implies the feeling of being found. By the fifth Law of DIFFERENCES, transitions from simple to complex are a key consideration in the rhythm of feeling. In this sixth Law, we ask what happens between the beats, and question where you might be in the progress of the song. Once you have properly situated yourself, you’re completely free to get lost in the rhythm.
Law 7 - EMOTION
More emotions are better than less
Simplicity can be considered ugly. Take my mother who absolutely despises anything of neutral color or minimalist form. She wants neon flowers, bejeweled frogs, and other decorative essentials.
From a rational perspective, simplicity makes good economic sense. Simple objects are easier and less expensive to produce, and those savings can be translated directly to the consumer with desirable low prices
The seventh Law is not for everyone—there will always be the die-hard Modernists who refuse any object that is not white or black, or else with clear or mirrored surfaces. My mother finds the iPod entirely unattractive. And while the older generation isn’t Apple’s targeted market (for the moment, at least), I am still the dutiful son I was raised to be, and so I find the seventh Law a necessary component in the simplicity toolbox. More emotions are better than less. When emotions are considered above everything else, don’t be afraid to add more ornament or layers of meaning.
I realize this seems to contradict the first Law of REDUCE. But I use a specific principle to determine just the right kind of more: “feel, and feel for.” Everything starts from being sensitive to your own feelings
FEEL, AND FEEL FOR: NUDE ELECTRONICS
When I first started a blog at MIT, I discovered that the most frequently accessed entry was the one entitled “nude electronics.” I could imagine the disappointment that a thrill-seeking geek might have had with my fully dressed prose.
By “nude electronics” I refer to the trend of making handheld consumer electronic objects smooth, seamless, and small to satisfy the market’s demand for simplicity. Using methods such as SHE, designers can simplify an object to its core and spare mysteriousness. But like a sheep that has been fleeced, you can’t help wonder if SHE is responsible for making the skinny little objects feel a tad bit cold.
Carrying cases for the simplicity object achieve two important goals. First of all, while she can make an object smaller, thereby alleviating the natural fear associated with larger and more complex machines, the successful application of she can instill a different kind of fear: concern for the object’s survival.
The second reason is rooted in self-expression and in the need to balance the subzero coolness of the ideal consumer electronics gadget with a sense of human warmth. While the core object retains its pure, simple, and cool nakedness; its clothing can keep it warm, vivacious, and simply outrageous if so intended
FEEL, AND FEEL FOR: AICHAKU
Modernism is the design movement that led to the clean, industrial look of many objects in our environment. It rejected unnecessary ornament in favor of exposing an object’s truth through the raw materials of its production. Japan’s rich tradition of almost perfectly crafted artifacts of wood and clay seems built on the same design principles as Modernism. However a hidden facet of Japanese design is this animistic theme. The precise lacquered surfaces of a bento box are more than just a fact of fine production; these surfaces—and the bento box that they comprise—are essentially alive. The inanimate box is accorded its own spiritual existence. There can be a natural emotional attachment to the object’s life force that is a kind of deep, hidden ornamentation known to only those who feel it.
Aichaku (ahy-chaw-koo) is the Japanese term for the sense of attachment one can feel for an artifact. When written by its two kanji characters, you can see that the first character means “love” and the second one means “fit.” “Love-fit” describes a deeper kind of emotional attachment that a person can feel for an object. It is a kind of symbiotic love for an object that deserves affection not for what it does, but for what it is.Acknowledging the existence of aichaku in our built environment helps us to aspire to design artifacts that people will feel for, care for, and own for a lifetime
THE ART OF MORE
Achieving clarity isn’t difficult. The Italian woman’s oncologist had easily mastered it. The true challenge is achieving comfort.
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Emotional intelligence is now considered an important facet of leaders today, and the expression of emotion is no longer considered a weakness but a desirable human trait to which everyone can immediately relate. Our society, systems, and artifacts require active engagement in care, attention, and feeling—the business value may not be immediately apparent. But the fulfillment from living a meaningful life is the ROE (Return on Emotion). A certain kind of more is always better than less—more care, more love, and more meaningful actions. I don’t think I need to say anything more really.
Law 8 - TRUST
In simplicity we trust.
Imagine an electronic device with only one unlabeled button on its surface. Pressing the button would complete your immediate task. Do you want to write a letter to Aunt Mabel? Go ahead and press the button. Click. A letter has been sent. You know with absolute certainty that it went out and expressed exactly what you needed. That’s simplicity. And we are not far from that reality
The question is how comfortable you are about the computer knowing how you think, and then how tolerant you will be if (and when) the computer makes a mistake in guessing your desires. Most people would gladly give up some of the rote details of their life to have more free time, as expressed in the third Law. But is the risk of placing trust in the devices around you worth the simplicity gained? The issue of privacy in the digital age cannot be resolved in these next few pages, and thus we approach the issue of trust in a simpler manner.
RELAX. LEAN BACK
Being able to lean back and relax often seems impossible in our competitive society
That is, until your bliss is interrupted by your spouse and a no-no finger pointing to an outrageous charge on the credit card
TRUST THE MASTER
An alternative to such menu stress is available in better sushi restaurants where you can ask for the omakase (oh-maw-kaw-say) course. Omakase translates roughly to “I leave it up to you” where “you” refers to the sushi chef. The process is simple. The sushi chef looks at you, does a rough analysis of your general disposition, reflects upon the season and the day’s weather, factors into consideration the variety of fish he has available in his arsenal, forms a rough idea for the optimal menu, starts the process of delivering the meal in measured increments, attentively observes your reaction, and tweaks the meal accordingly.
The Western equivalent of omakase is the “chef’s menu.” From appetizer to main entrée to dessert, an exquisite choice of two or three options is offered each step of the way. Thus the chef’s menu results in a great meal because the best dishes of the evening are put forward
Vanity is a high risk sport that raises the stakes when all you can offer to a client is your word and your reputation as a Master. Overconfidence is usually the enemy of greatness, and there’s little room for personal ego when pleasing a customer isthe true priority. But there’s something to be said for the sushi Master’s confidence. He knows with 100% accuracy that he will give a diner what she wants if she is willing to submit to his mastery and expertise
JUST UNDO IT.
Computer tools give us the option to undo often, and now infinitely. Digital media is a forgiving media. Any visual mark, spoken utterance, or typed word entered into the digital domain can just as easily be removed. People have different opinions on the magic of undo. Some believe that the feature makes people more creative by allowing them to take more risks; others assert that undo makes people less creative because they don’t think through ideas but rather create by happenstance. Which stance you take depends upon whether you are the sushi Master or just the average Joe.
On the contrary, undo is not about love, but simply a relationship of convenience. Power is equally balanced between experience and user such that neither side has the upper hand. There can be no relationship of depth because every interaction can be completely rewound to the beginning
TRUST ME
The more a system knows about you, the less you have to think. Conversely, the more you know about the system, the greater control you can exact. Thus the dilemma for the future use of any product or service is resolving the following point of balance for the user:
HOW MUCH DO YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT A SYSTEM?
HOW MUCH DOES THE SYSTEM KNOW ABOUT YOU?”
Law 9 FAILURE
Some things can never be made simple.
The truth embodied in the ninth Law is something I could have chosen to HIDE, but the eighth Law of TRUST commands me to speak. Some things can never be made simple. Knowing that simplicity can be elusive in certain cases is an opportunity to make more constructive use of your time in the future, instead of chasing after an apparently impossible goal. However there’s no harm in initiating the search for simplicity even when success is deemed as too costly or otherwise out of reach
There’s always an ROF (Return On Failure) when you try to simplify—which is to learn from your mistakes. When faced with failure, a good artist, or any other member of the creative class, leverages the unfortunate event to radically shift perspective. One man’s failed experiment in simplicity can be another man’s success as a beautiful form of complexity. Simplicity and complexity shift with subtle changes in point of view.
There are certain things that I would never want to become simple—that includes my close relationships and my collection of art. Complexity and simplicity are two symbiotic qualities. As raised in the fifth Law of DIFFERENCES, each needs the other—its respective definition depends upon the other’s existence
Failure happens. If not 3.4 times out of a million, then at least one time today for you or me. I began my personal trek towards simplicity just at the turn of this century, and I am the first to admit that I do not have all the answers. Some of my thoughts will inevitably be deemed as wrong. But the impatience embodied by the third Law of TIME compels me to publish this book right now even with its unresolved flaws
THE FLAWS OF SIMPLICITY 1: ACRONYM OVERLOAD
In developing a methodology to support the first Law, I had a choice of SHE (SHRINK, HIDE, EMBODY) or HER (HIDE, EMBODY, REMOVE). Pronoun versus adjective is the first difference, and I thought of integrating the two parts of speech into the discussion. For instance, I played with being able to refer to HER and SHE interchangeably in the first Law’s development. But it was the REMOVE in HER that made me remove HER in favor of SHE. Already I can see that I was correct to select only one, as this now sounds a bit like Abbott and Costello’s famous “Who’s on First?” comedy routine
THE FLAWS OF SIMPLICITY 2: BAD GESTALTS
As the Laws progress in the book, the themes become increasingly ambiguous. In the second Law I introduce the concept of gestalt—or the ability of the mind to “fill in the blank”—which justifies my approach to allow creative interpretation. However this open explanation can be confusing if taken logically.
The fifth Law ofDIFFERENCESimplies that there is a harmony between simple and complex that is achieved through human instinct. Everyone’s instinct is different, and thus a single answer is not readily available to achieve the optimal balance between simplicity and complexity. For the same reason that there are a variety of musical styles like classical, rock, and hip-hop to satisfy differences in culture, curiosity, and fad, the rhythm of simplicity will be varied.
Next, in the sixth Law ofCONTEXTI tell you to avoid the existing problem and to instead, look at the overall context of the situation. This approach may sound a bit irresponsible because it seems to imply that you should ignore the task at hand. Actually, the sixth Law doesn’t suggest a path of direct neglect, but instead advocates concentrating on the invisible chasm that bridges the foreground task and its background context. However since this bridge I refer to is imperceptible, it doesn’t seem fair for me to ask you to point your attention at what appears to be nothing. Also I imagine it doesn’t help to say that “nothing is something” because it seems like I am making something out of absolutely nothing, which I am.
When emotions are a priority, and deep feelings come into play, I eschew the importance of complexity as delivered by pouring on more decoration, more glamour, and generally more flavor. Thus the seventh Law ofEMOTIONcan be misinterpreted as saying that pure and simple experiences are sterile and devoid of feeling. It all depends on your personality and the mood that you wear at the exact moment of engagement. Sometimes you prefer clarity, and sometimes you prefer chaos. The seventh Law reserves your right to change your mind
Finally in the eight Law ofTRUST, I refer to the sushi Master as a persona worthy of absolute faith. Within almost the same breath, I espouse undo as the desirable power of not having to trust your own actions. Relieving yourself of pressure can feel fantastic, so why wouldn’t a sushi Master want his own form of undo key sitting next to the sushi bar? Magnificent individuals in jobs that demand maximum performance of them-selves tend to deny themselves the perceived weakness of the undo crutch, but it doesn’t mean that they don’t know how to relax. After all, that’s what sake’s for.
THE FINAL FLAW: TOO MANY LAWS
When I initially set my goal on the Laws of Simplicity, I began with a target of sixteen—knowing that it was too many. After a few iterations of slip, I reduced the number to nine Laws which is in the attractive single digit category. Further integration of the Laws into a smaller set is feasible I suppose, but not necessary at this very moment because their evolution continues on the companion websitelawsofsimplicity.com.
For the enjoyment of the simplicity purist that demands fewer guiding principles, I provide a single Law to remember as described in the following tenth Law: THE ONE.
Law 10 - THE ONE
Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful.
Simplicity is hopelessly subtle, and many of its defining characteristics are implicit (noting that it hides in SIMPLICITY). Drinking deeply from Ellisalde’s champagne approach led me to a single, simplified expression: Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful.
After SLIP-ping my observations into the ten Laws of Simplicity, I found that several ideas didn’t fit neatly into any single Law. They did, however, cluster around three specific technologies with particular relevance to the subject of simplicity. Originally, I thought of REDUCE-ing the book by removing these three sections. But in discussions with a variety of business leaders I felt that they weren’t completely obvious so by THE ONE Law I have kept them here
Key 1 - AWAY
More appears like less by simply moving it far, far away
Fundamental to the effectiveness of AWAY is how to maintain reliable communication with an outsourced task. A web-enabled phone is only good when it can reliably access the network. Conversely, a remotely hosted service needs to be resistant to the latest virus or hacker attack. It is comforting to think that even in the 21st century, the question of how to maintain a long distance relationship continues to flourish.
Key 2 - OPEN
Openness simplifies complexity
Companies don’t tend to profess love in the same way, but there is increasing pressure on businesses to design products to be more OPEN. Opening a proprietary system, much like professing one’s love, is a high risk activity that a company posting quarterly-earning figures often cannot afford. Who might misuse the information? What if our competitors leverage our company secrets? Why would a consumer buy what they could now easily make themselves? Giving away what is perceived to be the core protectable value—i.e. know-how, or “intellectual property”—does not make sense when tremendous efforts and investments have gone into realizing a successful product
In the technology world, the “open source” model—in which source code, the equivalent of a software’s blueprints, is made publicly available—is championed as a way to generate software that is not only free, but more robust than most soft-ware available on the market. The best-known example is Linux, an operating system that competes with Microsoft Windows. While Linux is free and open source, Windows is for-pay and closed source
According to the eighth Law, a deep form of simplicity is rooted in TRUST. Any book on salesmanship will tell you that trust forms the basis of a strong business relationship. Open systems place unique demands on the economics of trust. If the adage, “it is better to give than receive,” rings true to you, then the long run gains associated with an open system will also be obvious to you. If conventional capitalism is your compass, and to hear “trust me” translates to “f*ck you,” then you will likely choose the closed approach. However, there are signs that a “for free” open approach can lead to a “for a fee” approach. For example, the popular “Ruby on Rails” Web framework by 37signals is completely free, but related for-pay services are sold simultaneously. The case on open is open, indeed.
Key 3 - POWER
Use less, gain more.
Every rechargeable device I own is like a new pet that must be fed. The magic of cordless systems such as mobile phones, laptops, and so forth is freeing, yet there is a toll exacted with each new device acquired. I know that if I do not feed each device with energy regularly, batteries begin to discharge and their efficacy will eventually fade.
I practice my own kind of “sustainable computing.” In recent times I have begun to play a businessman’s equivalent to the daring game of “chicken” where I see how much life I can get out of my laptop on a trip without bringing the power cord. In the field of design there is the belief that with more constraints, better solutions are revealed. With only 14 minutes of charge left on my laptop right now, I find that indeed much more can get done than when the power is fully connected and freely available. Urgency and the creative spirit go hand in hand, and innovation as a positive Earth. Increased social practices that result in the use of less power—as well as supporting technology innovations for power harvesting and conservation—stand to realize a world where the most powerful examples of simplicity are those that will ironically appear powerless.
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