I read, and continue to study, John Maeda's book titled The Laws of Simplicity. The concept of simplicity pairs nicely with the concept of minimalism. However, a look at the two will have to come later.
I really enjoyed the book. It is written from the perspective of design, which makes sense since Maeda is a designer. There is a lot of great information for anybody who deals with design in their daily lives. I do think there is plenty of opportunity to apply the idea of simplicity to things outside of design.
The book is a short book (one might say it's simple) clocking in at about 100 pages. Maeda outlined 10 laws that are fundamental to designing for simplicity. Each law is presented well and Maeda argued his points brilliantly. One nice thing about the book is Maeda did not over explain. He provides enough information to make his points and then steps back to allow the reader to ponder and fill in some of the gaps. The book is very much an interactive book; that is definitely one of the things I like about it.
After the 10 laws Maeda provided 3 keys. I'm not really sure how these keys fit within his framework--Maeda did not go into great detail explaining the purpose of the keys and how they differ or compliment the laws. However, there is one key I struggled with. The third key: Power.
The key of Power injects activism into Maeda's larger framework. It is at this point that I felt the book is at its weakest. Maeda referred to Power in a literal sense, describing the use of energy to, quite literally, power devices. It is here that Maeda made a case for environmentalism and sustainability. Protecting the environment and finding sustainable ways of maintaining the status quo of civilization is a laudable goal anybody can appreciate. However, Power, in this context, doesn't really fit with an overarching framework for simplicity. I felt this was an opportunity to talk about the concept of work and how simplicity can make work better.
The core of Maeda's Power is that we should find ways to do more with less. I couldn't help but think of Kanban which shares a similar philosophy of accomplishing more by doing less. I felt this would have been a better approach for the key of Power, but alas it is not.
People too often take great pride thinking they can multitask. The truth of the matter is people are not good at multitasking. Multitasking often leaves people feeling overwhelmed, stressed, and unproductive. The reason they feel unproductive is because they actually are unproductive. When people focus on one thing at a time, they often enter into a state of flow. Flow is the euphoric state that can come from doing work. There's a lot more to what flow is, but for now just look at flow as a positive and rewarding way to do work.
Kanban simplifies work, which can lead to flow. The idea is that you focus on doing less work by not multitasking. Instead you do one task from beginning to end before you start a new task. Individuals and teams that practice Kanban experience accomplishing more work over time, than if they tried to accomplish all of the work up front through multitasking. By focusing on doing less, people experience decreased stress, less anxiety, and reduced feelings of being overwhelmed.
The word Power can certainly be used to describe the idea of using less to accomplish more. However, Maeda should have turned to Kanban instead of environmentalism. It would've provided a better framework, and it would've better served the concept of simplicity.