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- Reminder: Simplicity is Ruthless
One of my favorite designers, Paul Rand, once said: “Design is simple. That is why it is complicated.”
Look at some of the famous logos he’s designed.
When you first see these logos, you may think “phhhffff… I could’ve created that”.
If you thought that, then Paul Rand has successfully done his job.
Reminder to myself - and maybe to you: keep your writing simple too.
As Morgan Housel says in his essay, The Written Word: “Writing is an efficiency game. Whoever says the most stuff in the fewest words wins.”
Within the recent cohort 11 of Write of Passage, I participated in a slew of feedback gyms. Think of it like a boxing session, but for training your writing and enhancing your essays.
For context, Write of Passage is a 5-week intensive online course that consists of learning the craft of writing, learning to write online, and meeting like-minded people from around the globe.
was my first-ever partner in my first-ever feedback gym.
As we talked, he gave me an insight: if you are giving too many examples in your writing, thus creating complexity, it can be a sign that you are afraid to narrowly talk about a singular area.
After writing my first five essays within cohort 11 of Write of Passage, I found myself adding too many examples to each of my essays. It wasn’t just a writing habit weakness. “Over-examplifying” was a symptom of being afraid to talk about my impatience in relationships.
Writing an essay.
Designing a logo.
Building a product online.
All of the best of these have one common theme – simplicity.
I have a Chrome extension on my Google Chrome. It's the Visualize Value Chrome Extension.
It’s an incredible tool because every time you create a new tab in Chrome, it creates a new visual + quote for the opening screen.
The other day, upon loading a new browser tab, I came across this.
Every project has its own complexities.
Yet, the goal of the maker is to unbundle the complexity, dissect and discover the root point, and chip away until the gem of simplicity is formed.
When it comes to writing that would mean three things:
(1) unbundling the whirlpool of ideas in your mind,
(2) dissecting the main point of the essay and creating an outline,
(3) editing, editing, editing, until the final piece is ready to publish to the public.
This essay is my effort to not only talk about the topic of simplicity, but to apply the practice of it too.
If you’re not ruthless in creating simplicity, complexity will be ruthless in running your mind — and life.
I gave myself a parameter of writing this essay within 500 words. This is my 500th word. This word exactly. Right here. This one. Here. Period.
A BIG thank you to Baxter Blackwood for helping me trim the fat in this essay and properly structure the entire piece.
Don’t miss out on Baxter’s great writing.
Here is my website - you can find more stories, quotes, and deep dives here.
Each comment is helpful feedback for me to become a better writer and also connect with you more - let me know your thoughts on this piece
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