As a 5-year-old, I said to my father that we should buy a car.
He questioned back, “Where will we get the money from?”
To which I replied with full confidence, “We’ll just sell our house and live in the car. Mummy, you and I. Simple!”
18 years later, a professional psychometric consultant asked me to explain thermodynamics in a simple language that a 5-year-old could understand. I struggled!
Simplicity is of two types. The first type arises out of pure ignorance. Like the suggestion of permanently living in a car.
People simplify (sometimes oversimplify) things all the time. Creating stereotypes, following rigid religious beliefs, or blindly following a lifestyle. Mostly out of ignorance and lack of perspective.
The other type of simplicity is more deep and profound. It requires you to be curious. To be able to work through all the complexities of the process and incorporate them into a final outcome, that’s simple enough.
Examples of this type can be observed in selective luxury products, home decors, technology products, carefully chosen lifestyles and personal relationships.
Of the two, the second version of simplicity is much harder to achieve. But that’s the one that makes all the difference.