Simplify

"Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do" - Steve Jobs


At the beginning of 1997, Apple was a mess. Walter Isaacson writes:

"The company was churning out multiple versions of each product because of bureaucratic momentum and to satisfy the whims of the retailers. "It was insanity," Schiller recalled. "Tons of products, most of them crap, done by deluded teams." Apple had a dozen versions of the Macintosh, each with a different confusing number, ranging from 1400 to 9600."

When Steve Jobs returned to the company, he slashed redundant product lines to free up time and engineers in order to focus on only four products: the Power Mac G3, the Powerbook G3, the iMac and the iBook. 

He was acting on the motto of industrial designer Dieter Rams: Weniger aber besser. Less but better.

The principle of simplicity, of less but better, brings clarity. It eliminates worry. It frees up cognitive resources to focus on improvement over surveillance. 

What will you decide to do? What will you decide to not do? How can you do less, but better?