as simple as possible, but no simpler

Science

Albert Einstein on making theories as simple as possible:

It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience.

Einstein was describing Occam’s Razor, the idea that the simplest explanation is usually the right one. This quote is often attributed to Einstein in the summary form:

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.

Design

I like the French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s formulation, writing of airplane design:

In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away, when a body has been stripped down to its nakedness.

Art

Pablo Picasso illustrated this idea with a series of lithographs, “The Bull”, in which he progressively simplifies the animal to find “the spirit of the beast”:

According to this Twitter thread (which introduced me to the work), Apple has used these images as an example to employees to simplify their products to their bare essence.

Theology

Nassim Taleb writes about a related idea—the via negativa—which originates in apophatic (or negative) theology. It’s the idea that you can begin to define the essence of something hard-to-define (like the nature of a deity) by enumerating all that it isn’t. When we take away all that something isn’t, we begin to approach what it essentially is.

As the link above points out, this idea related to the idea that quantity leads to quality, that through aggressive experimentation in a creative pursuit we can quickly identify a bunch of ways something shouldn’t be done, allowing us to arrive at how it should be done by elimination.

Philosophy

To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, remove things every day. (Lao-Tzu)