Power of Minimization, Less is More
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
Leonardo da Vinci
Notable Quotes
“Life is really simple, but we insist in making it complicated.”
Confucius
“Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.”
Frederic Chopin
“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary, so that the necessary may speak.”
Hans Hofman
“Sometimes, less is more.”
William Shakespeare
Key Point
The great American-German architect, Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe helped to popularize the expression “less is more” in the early years of the twentieth century.
The wisdom of “less is more” extends far beyond architecture and well into our own era, as well. In his book, Management Challenges for the 21st Century, Peter Drucker gives new meaning to this idea when discussing organizational structure and staff supervision. “It is a sound principle,” he cautions, “that any one person in an organization have only one ‘master.’”
The Laws of Subtraction according to Matthew E. May
There are three critical choices inherent in every difficult decision in business, work and life:
1. What to pursue, versus what to ignore?
2. What to leave in, versus what to leave out?
3. What to do, versus what not to do?
Six Laws
1. What isn’t there can often trump what is.
2. The simplest rules create the most effective experience.
3. Limiting information engages the imagination.
4. Creativity thrives under intelligent constraints.
5. Break is the important part of breakthrough.
6. Doing something isn’t always better than doing nothing.
Additional Reading
The Laws of Subtraction: 6 Simple Rules for Winning in the Age of Excess Everything by Matthew May
The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda
Points of Reflection
“It is strange a difference comes from a subtraction.”
Natasha Tsakos
“We are happy in proportion to the things we can do without.”
Henry David Thoreau