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One of the best pieces of advice I have ever received is to keep things simple. Whether it be in writing, business, or life in general; simplicity often wins. One of the reasons this advice works so well is that, when you keep things simple, you are often forced to face the real problem and to find real solutions.
There is a human tendency to think that the more complex something is, the better it is. But very often complexity is a veil to hide the fact that we have no idea what we are doing or have any idea about what we are talking about. Anybody can make things complex, it takes a person with true understanding to make it simple. Albert Einstein was quoted as saying “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler”. I believe this is because where you have complexity, by nature you can have fraud and mistakes. When you have to keep things simple, you cannot get away with embellishment without substance.
Ironically, the best ideas are usually the simple ones. They are so simple that you do not have to be extraordinarily brilliant to reap the results. As Charlie Munger and Warren Buffet put it “our ideas are so simple that people keep asking us for mysteries when all we have are the most elementary ideas”. The best ideas are usually simple. But the catch with the best ideas being the simple ones is that they usually require a high level of discipline and execution.
So if you were, to sum up, the formula for being successful in most facets of life: it is taking very simple ideas or principles overlooked by a lot of people and being disciplined enough to execute relentlessly.
Thoughts from others
“There is this saying “Take a simple idea and take it seriously. And I think that is a really important thing to keep in mind. And I think when you look at lots and lots of extremely successful people at the pinnacle of their careers when you break it down, that quote is at the epicenter of how they got there. Usually, it is not something earth-shattering. It is something very simple but they were just fanatical about it. And that is usually the fanaticism and intensity around a simple idea that gets you to a promised land” – Mohnish Pabrai.
“It seems strange to have to emphasize simplicity. You would think simple would be the
default. Ornate is more work. But something seems to come over people when they try to be creative. Beginning writers attempt a pompous tone that does not sound anyway like the way they speak, designers trying to be artistic resort to swooshes and curlicues. Painters discover that they are expressionists. It is all evasion. Underneath the long words and brushstrokes, there is nothing much going on, and that is frightening. When you are forced to keep it simple, you are forced to face the real problem. When you cannot deliver ornament, you have to deliver substance” – Paul Graham.
Thanks to Adjoa Kudoadzi, Nana Yaw Adu-Duodu, and Lord Achidago for reading drafts of this