Of late the buzzing word "simplicity" has struck every chord in my little mindspace. Really it is a beautiful word. Where we as humans have complicated everything including our lives that were initially set out to be very simple. Live for Survival.. It is a complicated word "simplicity" indeed. I'm going to try break it up here, atleast as much as i can.
The art of thin-slicing (as popularized by Malcolm Gladwell)
99% of the data you're posed with is useless. the 1% is critical. That one percent is the crux that binds the data together. We all know this but we still get stuck with the 99%.
There are various methodologies listed all over the web that help you reach the 1% and the one i choose to follow needs extreme getting used to. I call it the art of structure.
I structure everything. I write it down. I make diagrams/charts/ any other form of visual representations ..anything.. to structurally collate the data.
If you want to follow this path i can suggest an easy way to start.
Post-its. Write out all the variables on post-it notes. Paste them up on a wall. Re-arrange them to clusters which seem common.
Now take an individual cluster and ask yourself, What binds all your information together?
In the little cluster that you've intuitively created its easy to find the common link.
Once you have these common links, the next step is to bind them together. This is the hard part and it takes a while getting used to!
Two things will happen when you start this process, you'll start finding the information less over-bearing and therefore you'll attain a sense of calm within a whirlwind of mess. Secondly, you'll know where to look for more information..
I've practiced this for about a year and now im slowly getting used to it. Do this till the process of combining common variables becomes so deeply intuitive and instinctive that you start structuring everything from feelings to thoughts to emotions to decisions... its a fun world to live in coz you start questioning Everything! and thats when you start questioning anger, happiness, joy and you kinda become autistically fascinated by them.
This process is just to know what you're trying to achieve.. When it becomes instinctive and intuitive you don't need to do this process all the time.. It will come naturally. And for it to come naturally it is important to feel a little disconnected to your information. To practice the art of letting go i've found it easy to tear up all the un-organised information and retain only the common links to play around with. It gives a sense of detachment to the information which makes it easier to look a step beyond.
The art of information gathering is like making a shopping list, when you start of you say i have too much to do. when you've made a list you say hey i just need to go to 2 places for everything to be done!
Thin-Slicing is the art of breaking down everything within a "blink" till it meets you with startling revelations... and trust me, they're always startling.
The art of insight: the next dimension of visual creativity.
Do you remember your childhood days? Do you remember what you felt last time you were happy? Chances are that you just drew out a mental image of your happy moment and you added words and sounds that fit the visual description of your happy moment. Don't kill urself over it. its natural to do that. Its therefore established that its easier for your brain to collect and recollect images.
Now think about it this way.
Its easy for my mind to visually collate, so why don't i feed it more visual data?
.. And maybe if its easier for my mind to recollect visual data it must do a series a calculations or somethings that helps it to remember the visual data i fed it without making me realize it? So my mind actually has the capacity to think more about visual data.. with this realization I drew this map.
now let me try to break it down in "simpler" terms.
All of us have given interviews. Now pick your favorite. What did you like about the questions being answered? 9 times out of 10 you'll find what you liked about the answer is NOT that you answered exactly what was asked, what you liked is that the answer brought out a startling revelation.
Having given one such interview I found it interesting to dissect the art of visual mapping and i realised something i did very intuitively was create a visual map of where the question being asked is heading to and create a simultaneous visual map of what I want it to be and answered the question from MY perspective. Its like screw you i know what you're asking and you'll get me into shit so here's the real deal.. Whats interesting is that I did it instinctively.
This re-rendering of visual maps is one thing that spurs an insight... and insight the way Jane Fulton Suri describes it in thoughtless acts, not the marketing term that we're getting used to using in lay terms :)
maybe ill write about this in detail later.
Simplicity in basic dissections.
Simplicity till now i've viewed in 2 strange ways: Include Everything & Include Nothing.
1. Apple
Your mac is a highly intuitive piece of equipment. Infact the trend sparked by their technological revolution is to make technology conform to you rather than you conforming to it.. Humanising Tech
nology as i like to call it.
What does this simplicity require? Extreme technology. Include Everything. Include every known technological inspiration to make this happen.
Have you ever truly seen your mac laptop? sure its simple in interface but more than that there is a greater revelation: there is no visible demarcation to show that you can tear your laptop apart the way you're used to opening up your dells and compaqs. It visually feels as if they're saying hey, we know what we're talking about.. Its high-tech stuff here babe. Enjoy my privileges but don't mess with me.
Simple in interface. Complicated inside.
2. Ross Lovegrove's Chair
Its based on a simple principle: Minimise the Unnecessary. Include Something of what already exists and redefine the rest.
It just has to look simpler than what i usually see..
Simple in thought. Simple in Execution.
A sub-version of this is when i include nothing of what i already know and just redefine my parameters from scratch. We usually dont do this. We ask hey who wants to reinvent the wheel????
in all this ive realised one substantial thing. in simplicity lies complexity. Like my boss says, its like this, when you have a problem and you want to reach the simple insightful revelation to it, you need to create an entire circle around the problem, dwell into all complexities to reach the solution.. and when you reach the solution you say wtf! it was right there!!!! how did i not see it!
now i havent been able to come to the stage where simplicity is just simple and not with its fare share of a complexity circle. in other words, i havent been able to make that tiny little jump. When you do it, let me know about it ;)
Adieu!
