I’m writing a book. I’ll probably call it The Better Human: 10 Principles For Getting Better and living like a badass mofo that takes no prisoners. Or something. I'm trying to distill life for modern humans down to the essential principles. Simplicity is one of those principles. So is action. And movement.And the growth mindset. And a few others I’m refining. Simplicity is a big one. The process itself is one of trying to achieve simplicity. Everything good is simple. Every product, idea, book, movie, play, etc., is as simple as it can be. It’s like when Michelangelo said he removes all the stone that's not supposed to be there... and then David emerges. It’s about removing just enough—not too much, not too little. That’s simplicity. And simplicity is about as close to perfect as we can get. Complication creates waste, procrastination, anxiety, and investing time, money, and energy into the wrong things. Seek simple in everything.
“Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden and Other Writings
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.”
― E.F. Schumacher
“If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.”
― Albert Einstein
“Manifest plainness, Embrace simplicity, Reduce selfishness, Have few desires.”
― Lao Tzu
“It is not a daily increase, but a daily decrease. Hack away at the inessentials.”
― Bruce Lee
“As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.”
― Henry David Thoreau
“I do believe in simplicity. It is astonishing as well as sad, how many trivial affairs even the wisest thinks he must attend to in a day; how singular an affair he thinks he must omit. When the mathematician would solve a difficult problem, he first frees the equation of all incumbrances, and reduces it to its simplest terms. So simplify the problem of life, distinguish the necessary and the real. Probe the earth to see where your main roots run. ”
― Henry David Thoreau