I noticed that I seemed to be saying 'there has got to be an easier way,' quite alot recently and by 'easier' I mean a 'simpler' way. What intrigued me was that I wasn't saying 'there has got to be a better way' but rather 'there has got to be a simpler way.' Which got me thinking - is the result of all the chaos that we found ourselves in last year, a desire now to move to the more simpler things in life?
And so in search of the truth, I turned to the one person that I know who would have the answer - Edward De Bono. Dusting off my copy of his book 'Simplicity' (Penguin Group; 1998) I turned immediately to page 279 and read the 10 Rules of 'Simplicity'
- You need to put a very high value on simplicity
- You must be determined to seek simplicity
- You need to understand the matter very well
- You need to design alternatives and possibilities
- You need to challenge and discard existing elements
- You need to be prepared to start over again
- You need to use concepts
- You may need to break things down into smaller units
- You need to be prepared to trade off other values for simplicity
- You need to know for whose sake the simplicity is being designed
Well, nobody said it was going to easy - or - simple for that matter. However, armed with these 10 Rules, I am determined to embrace 'simplicity' but leave you with the final word from De Bono 'In an increasingly complex world 'simplicity' is becoming one of the 4 key values.'
Here's to the simple things in life.
ian



Comments