There is to me something fascinating about simplicity. The people who speak simplicity seem to hover above complication and have a clear mind which gives them guidance and illumination. Is simplicity the result of much intelligence and education? In my experience, of all intelligent and educated people I know only some are simplicity thinkers, so the answer must be no. On the other hand, in the ranks of the not so intelligent and educated, some think in simple terms. So, simplicity must be something else.
What is simplicity, though? I think it could be described in two ways: one, the way a seven year old thinks, which is elementary, and, two, what a grown up would think, which could be complex, but put in such a way that a seven year old would understand. Both these situations can be classified as simple.
Simplicity is boldness, its being able to draw only a few fundamental lines to describe a situation or idea. It is interesting that some people are, as it seems, inherently complicated while some others are simple. The former certainly do not have the gift of simplicity and when asked to describe their complex idea or situation need too many words and do not impact on the listener as much as a bold person would. I'm convinced that simplicity is like the colour of your eyes - it's innate. But I believe also that people can be trained to have a simple mind. A friend of mine told me how, when he was a kid in Mozambique, during Sunday school and after reading a versicle of the Bible, he would be required to put it in a few words of himself. That's boldness training.
I find it interesting to realize that most geniuses were people of simple ideas. I actually think that it requires a bit of genius to reduce a complex idea or situation into something simple. And this because to do that you need to have the feeling that tells you what is essential and important in your idea or situation and what is not and so can be left out. Without this feeling you feel lost in complex situations and won't know where to go. With the feeling for simplicity, though, you can easily detect the fundamental lines of an issue and know what you have to do to deal with it.
It's also interesting to realize that, government bodies that print forms and other documents, with time tend to simplify them which makes it much easier for the citizen to use them. In fact, if you do something repeatedly, you tend to perfect it and this often means that you simplify it. Repetition brings into clear shape what is fundamental and what is accessory, what is the skeleton and what is the flesh. This happens, I think, because by dealing with certain issues you often get to know them closely. And it's this close knowledge that brings simplicity into play. So, deep knowledge of your topics potentially brings on simplicity.
The art form that I know of, which brings simplicity to its most exquisite extreme, is the Zen art of painting. It uses only brush and the classic black ink and tries to express itself the most in just a few strokes, the few the better. The most dramatic painting that I know is a vertical line crossing the white canvas at midpoint, top to bottom. And what does it convey? The duality and opposition of Yin and Yang. Simple.
