The Power of Simplicity
A deceptively simple mental model inspired by Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger. From Kamil Debbagh’s series “Mungerisms Expanded.”
TLDR: Don’t get fancy. Get good at the basics.
Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett teach an important lesson: Don’t get fancy. Get good at the basics.
And I concur: The power of the basics is often underestimated.
Yet, it doesn’t take a 180+ IQ to do things right. It’s just that people are not methodical enough to make sure to emphasize the basics. People are in a rush. They cut corners and behind superficial sophistication.
But nailing the basics only takes a checklist of “to-dos” and “not-to-dos,” then duly going through them each time you have to make a decision.
Airplane pilots best embody this mentality: They have a checklist and they need to tick each box before departing. This is how they avoid getting lenient. This is how they avoid a crash.
Unfortunately, few commit to this level of diligence. It’s as if because people know the basics are simple, they‘re’ not valuable enough to focus on.
The intellectual shortcut goes like:
Basics = Simple = Easy = Not valuable
But basics are powerful, valuable, and…hard. They’re a resource with infinite potential — and most of us only scratch their superficial layer.
Read further down to learn how Munger and Buffett elaborate on mastering the basics.
Introduction
This is my first article of a series: Mungerisms Expanded.
I recently finished reading Charlie Munger’s Poor Charlie’s Almanack after reading Warren Buffet’s biography The Snowball four years ago.
In our world, few strangers can be called friends. Generally, if a stranger talks with you, it is in order to serve their interests, either by selling you a good (salespersons) or an idea (politicians).
However, among this selfish crowd, stand a few singular characters who intend to elevate their fellow humans.
I count myself lucky to be contemporary of two of these unique fellows: Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. Buffett, the world’s richest financier and Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, needs no introduction. But fewer people know Munger.
Munger is best known as Berkshire Hathaway’s Vice Chairman and Buffett’s best friend, but I believe these associations don’t do him justice.
So let me introduce him to you. Munger is a polymath — an intellectual prodigy who has crafted his own multidisciplinary system to analyze the world, phenomena, and human beings in order to make decisions. His financial track record and ten-figure net worth speak for themselves.
Here’s the best part:
Both Buffett and Munger, inspired by the life and wisdom of Benjamin Franklin, have embraced a “preacher’s ethos.” They share — often and for free — the philosophy and habits that made them happy in life and successful in business.
Munger, although less fond of the spotlight than Buffett, has publicly shared his techniques and principles throughout the years and eventually compiled that wisdom in his book Poor Charlie’s Almanack, the title a hat tip to Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack.
I believe Poor Charlie’s Almanack to be the best book one may read during their life. It’s packed with so much wisdom that it’s hard to wrap one’s head around the book’s power when its lessons are duly applied.
Having read and meditated on Munger’s ideas for the past few months, I have decided to offer my own take on their meanings, and how one may apply them in one’s own life.
This will be my series of articles Mungerisms Expanded.
Today is my first issue of the series, The Power of Simplicity.
Munger once said:
“Take a simple idea, and take it seriously.”
What did he mean by that?
Someone once asked Munger why more people hadn’t copied Berkshire Hathaway’s approach to investing. In his usual blunt style, he replied:
“More investors don’t copy our model because our model is too simple […]. Most people believe you can’t be an expert if it’s too simple.”
So the point I will make in this article is that most people neglect the fundamentals because they believe them to be too basic, opting instead for elaborate constructs and overly-intellectual scaffolding, adding unnecessary layers of complexity to their reasoning.
The problem is: These superfluous layers often distract from the fundamental requirements one idea must meet in order to be successful.
When the fundamentals are overlooked, so too is common sense. This why so many overengineered analyses result in negative outcomes.
Allow me to present a few illustrative examples of people and organizations neglecting the fundamentals, thus falling into the “fancy construct trap.”
Case #1: Café Bohème, Paris — a “fancy” restaurant
I live in a dynamic district in Paris. A few years ago, a new restaurant opened nearby. That restaurant is called Café Bohème. Here’s a photo of its dining room:
You’re probably thinking, “This place looks charming. I’d love to have a drink there with friends.” Why did you think that? Because, aesthetically, this restaurant is beautiful and, therefore, attractive.
But that’s merely lipstick. As I’ve experienced time and time again, once you sit here, the service doesn’t live up to the expectations set by the aesthetics.
It will take a good 10 minutes before the waiter brings you the menu, 10 more before they take your order, and another 15 if you’re lucky and they eventually bring your order to the table (which is typically bland). The waiters are in a constant rush, which makes for an overall unpleasent experience.
What’s happening here? The restaurant has a charming facade, so attracts many customers, but once seated, it can’t deliver on a restaurant’s most basic value propositions: Good food and good service. The restaurant’s owners focused their energy on appearances, but lost sight of the fundamentals.
After a couple of bad experiences, I’ve sworn to never go back.
Now, let’s take the opposite example: Jiro Ono’s sushi temple in Tokyo, Japan.
Case #2: Sukiyabashi Jiro, Tokyo — a “basic” restaurant
Doe this image make you want to go there? Chances are it appears response is probably, “Meh.”
What if I told you that Jiro’s restaurant is renowned for being the world’s best sushi restaurant? It was the first to receive three Michelin stars and it’s the subject of a popular documentary venerating its proprietors’ exemplary craftsmanship.
How did a 20 sq. ft. restaurant located inside of a subway station become one of the world’s most renowned? The answer is simple: Jiro has focused his full efforts on perfecting the craft of sushi-making — learned over 70 years and counting.
Jiro didn’t put his energy toward the non-essential aspects of his business like marketing or aesthetics. He simply focused on making the best sushi in the world, then let his food speak for itself.
The idea is: You’re so good at what you do that people rush to your door and beg you to take their money.
This approach was well synthesized by Silicon Valley startup accelerator YCombinator:
“Growth is the result of a great product, not the precursor.”
That means the first step to building a great business is to offer a delightful, differntiated value proposition.
Jiro’s uncommon emphasis on and execution of the fundamentals has resulted in worldwide acclaim, a months-long reservation waitlist, and even a visit from President Obama during his visit to Japan in 2014.
Jiro is a living example of Munger’s mental model:
“Take a simple idea and take it seriously.”
In Jiro’s case, he took the simple idea of crafting the best sushi in the world and dedicated his entire life to it. That’s it. Sushi. Only sushi. Not sushi + salad + meatballs + ramen. Just sushi.
To become the best, Jiro didn’t try to offer the most complete menu possible. He didn’t add unnecessary layers of complexity. He reduced his scope to a single dish and worked on perfecting it for decades.
It seems ridiculous. What is sushi? A slice of raw fish on top of a ball of rice. Maybe add a little soy sauce and wasabi here and there? How hard can it be? Does it really take 70 years of monk-like dedication to make great sushi?
You might be thinking: “I bet I can make decent sushi in just a few hours by following a YouTube tutorial.”
Think again.
Yes, sushi is a simple dish. But does simple mean easy?
No. Simple is hard.
People underestimate simple products or concepts because they are easy to half-ass in a superficial way. It may take three hours to learn how to make average sushi, but it takes a lifetime of dedication to perfect the art.
Many people and businesses fail by neglecting the power of the most simple ideas. Instead of perfecting them like Jiro does, the default to “ticking the box” and moving on.
Master the fundamentals
Back to Charlie’s quote:
“Take a simple idea and take it seriously.”
How does this idea apply to product design? By narrowing down the scope of the product and obessing on the execution of its most basic features.
As Gmail creator Paul Buchheit says:
“If your product is good, it does not need to be great.”
In other words, your product does not need to offer all possible features, but it does need to focus on the biggest pain points and solve them uncommonly well.
This brings us to the most essential takeaway of my article: The power of simplicity.
Charlie’s message is to be overly serious when it comes to seemingly simple ideas. Not to disregard them because they seem too basic, but to focus on them, obsessively work on them, and to squeeze every ounce of juice possible from them.
It’s no coincidence that many of the greatest thinkers of makers have time and time again praised simplicity: Leonardo da Vinci, Jiro Ono, Steve Jobs…
These geniuses took products, stripped them off their unessential parts, and uncompromisingly focused on building the best possible version of each of their most fundamental building blocks. They didn’t try to do everything well. They worked to make the basics perfect.
Their genius is threefold:
- Philosophical: On a higher-level, they understood the superiority of simplicity and abide by its demanding rules.
- Exploratory: While investigating people’s needs, they had the uncommon ability to identify and distinguish what was essential from what wasn’t. They understood the deepest desires and motivations of the human psyche.
- Applicative: Once they isolated the core problems they wanted to solve, they relentlessly and uncompromisingly worked to design and craft the best possible solutions to each sub-problem.
To find these three aspects of genius in a single person is exceedingly rare. This is why there are so few Jiros or Jobs.
But those who 1.) Understand the power of simplicity, 2.) Explore the world’s problems to isolate essential sub-problems, and 3.) Have the focus and discipline to deliver extraordinary versions of simple ideas, will find uncommon success in their lives.
It’s a mindset that can be trained, refined, and acquired. I invite all of you who’ve reached this far to strive for simplicity and make it paramount in all of your actions and decisions.
How to unlock the power of simplicity
“The only way to win is to work, work, work, and hope to get a few insights.”
Let’s say that at this point you’ve become convinced of the importance of being serious about simple ideas. Good. Now, how do you go on and actually unlock the full power of simplicity?
You work incredibly hard for a long time and focus to get the fundamentals right.
That’s it. Working hard. Patience. Dedication to one’s craft. Learning to appreciate the process more than the proceeds. It’s the same tried and true formula.
Why does it work? Because by practicing the same actions over and over again in the quest for growth and improvement, you progressively peel off the superficial layers of understanding and you unlock the core of the idea — where most of its power lies. You begin to perceive nuances you didn’t even know existed before.
Inwardly, you become able to break down the process of “making” into a finite number of atomic steps. And you then realize those atomic steps aren’t as small as you first thought. Each movement, each action, each repetition can be infinitely broken down into smaller sub-steps. Dizziness generally ensues. You are awe-struck by the beauty of Creation.
And it is at this turning point that, consciously or not, you come to the following life-defining question:
“Do I want to face each new threshold one by one, am I ready to keep pushing to improve in infinitely smaller margins?”
Becoming a craftsman means embracing this lifestyle and committing to this quest. Anything else is simply…average.
This may sound romantic and esoteric, but it’s not. Let me illustrate with Jiro’s example.
If you were to become an apprentice at Jiro Ono’s restaurant tomorrow, do you know what he would have you do? Cook rice. That’s it. For the first few years, the only thing you’d do is cook rice. Nothing more. Why? Because rice is the essential component of sushi, and Jiro would want you to perfect its art.
Only after a few years of rice-cooking would you enter the next stages of sushi-making: Choosing the best raw materials (rice, fish, soy sauce, rice vinegar, wasabi, etc.), choosing the best instruments (blade, rice cooker, etc.), choosing the right dimensions for your fish, choosing the right dimensions for your rice, adding just the right quantity of soy sauce and wasabi, and so on.
If this seems like an endless process, that’s because it is.
This is what it takes to become the Jiro Ono, the Charlie Munger, or the Steve Jobs of your craft.
So, are you ready to dedicate your life to the quest for simplicity?
Conclusion
I hope this first article of my series “Mungerisms Expanded” has shed sufficient light on great concepts and people to convince you of the power of simplicity.
I can assure you that, on a personal level, I am committed to the quest of mastering the fundamentals and building the most simple, elegant experiences.
I’ll leave you with a bonus table I concocted to remind me of simplicity’s most important distinctions:
If you enjoyed this article and want to react, feel free to reach out to me at kamil.debbagh@gmail.com or comment below. I’m always looking for stimulating conversations and challenging feedback!
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