Simplicity is in. Apple products are “beautiful” and “intuitive.” Google’s homepage is “clean.” What do the two most valuable brands in the world tell us about our preferences? We just want the world to make sense. Tax codes, fine print, the DMV—these nefarious thorns of modern life are the source of rampant anxiety. People praise elegance. No one wins awards for complexity.

The irony is there’s “nothing simple about simplicity,” as Alan Siegel and Irene Etzkorn state in Simple: Conquering the Crisis of Complexity. Think about an award winning Steven Spielberg movie or a hilarious Louis C.K. stand-up routine. We’re enjoying a final product. The scenes that “just didn’t work” and the jokes that bombed are invisible. Spielberg and C.K. spent months—perhaps years—figuring out what is essential and mercilessly cutting everything else (“Kill your darlings,” as the proverbial editor says). Achieving simplicity is complicated; observing it is not. We often forget the first part.

Many businesses confuse customers with complexity. Banks profit from small fees because they know you won’t read the fine print. Consultants tend to paint the world as complicated and confusing—simplified only with their services, they say. This approach might net some extra cash for banks and land consulting gigs, but it is a losing strategy in the long run. Apple and Google are the new standard (most Apple products don’t even come with instruction manuals). And as our expectations shift, businesses will have to adjust. Their survival depends on it.

250Words.com