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Things get more complex before they get simple

Things get more complex before they get simple in a chart of complexity over time — observation from Edward De Bono
Things get more complex before they get simple in a chart of complexity over time — observation from Edward De Bono

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You can see this trend in most technology products. Increasing subtleties and functions are added improving what a product can do. At some point, the complexity is sufficient to force us to focus efforts on simplification (or the benefit great enough that a simpler technology will take over) - while maintaining functionality.

Some examples:

  • Classic menus migrating to context-sensitive menus
  • The original NES controller, to the xbox controller to Wii and Kinect controllers
  • Yahoo’s list-the-web, to Google’s search the web
  • Multiple glasses to photochromic glasses

And so on.

I believe this observation is from Edward De Bono, but I learned it from Darrell Mann . I keep finding it helpful.

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