Law 1 / Reduce
The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction.
Law 2 / Organize
Organization makes a system of many appear fewer.
Law 3 / Time
Savings in time feel like simplicity.
Law 4 / Learn
Knowledge makes everything simpler.
Law 5 / Differences
Simplicity and complexity need each other.
Law 6 / Context
What lies in the periphery of simplicity is definitely not peripheral.
Law 7 / Emotion
More emotions are better than less.
Law 8 / Trust
In simplicity we trust.
Law 9 / Failure
Some things can never be made simple.
Law 10 / The One
Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful.
The Laws of Simplicity is a 100-page book I wrote just as the Apple iPod was starting to take off and while I was earning my MBA as a kind of “hobby.” LOS has been translated into more than 14 different languages -- and has now been around for over a decade. I never finished the sequel to LOS, but I wrote a short book on design, tech, and leadership as a form of therapy, entitled Redesigning Leadership.
Thank you for being curious about the Laws of Simplicity. A lot has changed in the technology world since I first wrote it, so I hope that you can use the parts (and Laws and Keys) that appear to be standing the test of time.
These days I see design, technology, and business headed in a set of new, interesting directions. Thus I'm
working on something that's tentatively called lawsof.design that I hope to finish some day soon. Really soon. —JM
Notes and Thoughts
2014
●7/27Dr. Daniel Cabrera's LOS for Emergency Medicine
●8/30ANAME, CNAME, ALIAS, DNS
●8/10Do Both
●5/3Laws of Simplicity, Revisited
2013
●12/30Design and Venture .Org
●5/27Commencement Memories
●3/17Context is King
●3/16Confidence without Ego
●1/27The Gift, from ca 2000
●1/27Parade Magazine (2006)
●1/20Life Hack List
●1/5Rethinking Technology
●1/5Audio Book Version of LOS
●1/51473
●4/4Always Being Told That You Have Potential
●7/3Simply Imperfect
12/5The Laws of Subtraction
2010
2008
2007
2006
2005
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