Elegance and The Art of Less

Matthew E. May:

The singular thought that what isn’t can often be as or more powerful than what is presented me with a completely different view of the world. In fact, it offered an altogether unique reality—and a life-changing one at that. I embarked on the journey I’m still on, in search of solutions that derive maximum effect from minimum means, ideas that are elegant by virtue of their ability to achieve two conflicting goals at once: profound simplicity and surprising power.

It turns out that if you know where to look and what to look for, the “stop doing” strategy can be found at the heart of elegance in a wide range of fields— from the arts to athletics, from manufacturing to architecture, from science to media. Elegance is a widely sought-after quality, and it can take many forms. A few individuals, teams, and companies have become quite adept at exploiting the principle of subtraction to better sculpt their ideas, performances, and lives.

Scientists, mathematicians, and engineers search for theories that explain highly complex phenomena in stunningly simple ways. Artists and designers use white, or “negative,” space to convey visual power. Musicians and composers use pauses—silence—in the score to create dramatic tension. Dancers and elite athletes deliver their maximum performances by minimizing unnecessary exertion. Physicians draw on Occam’s razor principle—or diagnostic parsimony—to find the single cause of a patient’s myriad symptoms, shaving the analysis down from a sea of possibilities to the most likely explanation.

Delightful. Read the full article here, an excerpt from his book In Pursuit of Elegance.

(Full disclosure: I work for frog design, who publish Design Mind).