There is clarity in simplicity.
Minimalist artists and designers, truly effective planners, the ancient Stoics…even Steve Jobs all understood this important lesson.
I once heard the idea that simplicity and true understanding live on a bell curve. At the far left you have simplicity that results from only a superficial understanding of a thing. As you move right up the rise of the curve, you realize how complex it is. As you reach the top, you’ve reached peak complexity, either in your understanding of the thing or your design of it. As you come down the curve, you realize how to reassemble all the complex parts into a more elegant solution until finally, you reach the bottom right where true clarity emerges from true simplicity.
Maybe that was too complex an explanation, but the point is that when we truly understand something, we have clarity. When we reduce things down to their core, to their true essence; when we strip away all the unnecessary fluff, we get to true simplicity.
And when we get to true simplicity, everyone can clearly understand it.
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