1. ⁘  ⁘  ⁘
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  26. Bell, Larry 3
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  28. Blake, William 5
  29. blogging 21
  30. body 11
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  32. boredom 9
  33. Botton, Alain de 38
  34. Brand, Stewart 4
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  36. Brooks, Frederick P. 22
  37. Broskoski, Charles 6
  38. brutalism 7
  39. building 16
  40. bureaucracy 12
  41. Burnham, Bo 9
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  43. Byron, Lord 14
  44. Cagan, Marty 6
  45. Calvino, Italo 21
  46. Camus, Albert 13
  47. care 6
  48. Carruth, Shane 15
  49. Cegłowski, Maciej 6
  50. Cervantes, Miguel de 7
  51. chance 11
  52. change 16
  53. Chiang, Ted 4
  54. Chimero, Frank 17
  55. choice 8
  56. cities 51
  57. Clark, Robin 3
  58. Cleary, Thomas 8
  59. Cleary, J.C. 8
  60. code 20
  61. collaboration 16
  62. collections 31
  63. Collison, Simon 3
  64. color 23
  65. commonplace 10
  66. communication 31
  67. community 7
  68. complexity 11
  69. connection 24
  70. constraints 25
  71. construction 9
  72. content 9
  73. Corbusier, Le 13
  74. Coyier, Chris 4
  75. craft 65
  76. creativity 58
  77. crime 9
  78. Critchlow, Tom 5
  79. critique 10
  80. Cross, Nigel 12
  81. Cross, Anita Clayburn 10
  82. css 11
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  84. curiosity 11
  85. cycles 7
  86. Danielewski, Mark Z. 4
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  91. Debord, Guy 6
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  94. details 30
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  101. Drucker, Peter F. 15
  102. Duany, Andres 18
  103. Eatock, Daniel 4
  104. economics 13
  105. efficiency 7
  106. Eisenman, Peter 8
  107. Eliot, T.S. 14
  108. emotion 8
  109. ending 14
  110. engineering 11
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  112. ethics 14
  113. euphony 38
  114. Evans, Benedict 4
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  119. features 25
  120. feedback 6
  121. flaws 10
  122. Flexner, Abraham 8
  123. food 16
  124. form 18
  125. Fowler, Martin 4
  126. Franklin, Ursula M. 30
  127. friendship 6
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  133. Garfunkel, Art 6
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  136. goals 9
  137. Gombrich, E. H. 4
  138. goodness 12
  139. Graham, Paul 37
  140. graphics 13
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  142. Hamming, Richard 45
  143. happiness 17
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  145. Harper, Thomas J. 15
  146. Hayes, Brian 28
  147. heat 7
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  151. Hesse, Herman 6
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  153. Hoffman, Yoel 10
  154. Hofstadter, Douglas 6
  155. home 15
  156. Hoy, Amy 4
  157. Hoyt, Ben 5
  158. html 11
  159. Hudlow, Gandalf 4
  160. humanity 16
  161. humor 6
  162. Huxley, Aldous 7
  163. hypermedia 22
  164. i 18
  165. ideas 19
  166. identity 33
  167. images 10
  168. industry 9
  169. information 42
  170. infrastructure 17
  171. innovation 14
  172. interaction 10
  173. interest 10
  174. interfaces 36
  175. intuition 8
  176. invention 10
  177. Irwin, Robert 65
  178. Isaacson, Walter 28
  179. Ishikawa, Sara 33
  180. iteration 13
  181. Ive, Jonathan 6
  182. Jackson, Steven J. 14
  183. Jacobs, Jane 54
  184. Jacobs, Alan 5
  185. Jobs, Steve 20
  186. Jones, Nick 5
  187. Kahn, Louis 4
  188. Kakuzō, Okakura 23
  189. Kaufman, Kenn 4
  190. Keith, Jeremy 6
  191. Keller, Jenny 10
  192. Kelly, Kevin 3
  193. Keqin, Yuanwu 8
  194. Ketheswaran, Pirijan 6
  195. Kingdon, Jonathan 5
  196. Kitching, Roger 7
  197. Klein, Laura 4
  198. Kleon, Austin 13
  199. Klinkenborg, Verlyn 24
  200. Klyn, Dan 20
  201. knowledge 28
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  205. Kuma, Kengo 18
  206. language 20
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  214. Luu, Dan 8
  215. Lynch, Kevin 12
  216. MacIver, David R. 8
  217. MacWright, Tom 5
  218. Magnus, Margaret 12
  219. making 77
  220. management 14
  221. Manaugh, Geoff 27
  222. Markson, David 16
  223. Mars, Roman 13
  224. material 39
  225. math 16
  226. McCarter, Robert 21
  227. meaning 33
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  229. melancholy 51
  230. memory 28
  231. metaphor 10
  232. metrics 19
  233. microsites 49
  234. Miller, J. Abbott 10
  235. Mills, C. Wright 9
  236. minimalism 10
  237. Miyazaki, Hayao 30
  238. Mod, Craig 15
  239. modularity 6
  240. Mollison, Bill 31
  241. morality 8
  242. Murakami, Haruki 21
  243. music 16
  244. Müller, Boris 7
  245. Naka, Toshiharu 8
  246. names 11
  247. Naskrecki, Piotr 5
  248. nature 51
  249. networks 15
  250. Noessel, Christopher 7
  251. notetaking 34
  252. novelty 10
  253. objects 15
  254. order 10
  255. ornament 9
  256. Orwell, George 7
  257. Ott, Matthias 4
  258. ownership 6
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  260. Palmer, John 8
  261. patterns 11
  262. Patton, James L. 9
  263. Pawson, John 21
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  290. Radić, Smiljan 20
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  300. Reveal, James L. 4
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  319. silence 9
  320. Silverstein, Murray 33
  321. Simms, Matthew 19
  322. Simon, Paul 6
  323. simplicity 14
  324. Singer, Ryan 12
  325. skill 17
  326. Sloan, Robin 5
  327. Smith, Cyril Stanley 29
  328. Smith, Justin E. H. 6
  329. Smith, Rach 4
  330. socializing 7
  331. society 23
  332. software 66
  333. solitude 12
  334. Somers, James 8
  335. Sorkin, Michael 56
  336. sound 14
  337. space 20
  338. Speck, Jeff 18
  339. speech 6
  340. spirit 10
  341. streets 10
  342. structure 13
  343. Strunk, William 15
  344. Ström, Matthew 13
  345. style 30
  346. Sun, Chuánqí 15
  347. symbols 12
  348. systems 18
  349. Sōetsu, Yanagi 34
  350. Sōseki, Natsume 8
  351. Tanaka, Tomoyuki 9
  352. Tanizaki, Jun'ichirō 15
  353. taste 10
  354. Taylor, Dorian 16
  355. teaching 21
  356. teamwork 16
  357. technology 41
  358. texture 7
  359. thinking 30
  360. Thoreau, Henry David 8
  361. time 54
  362. Tolkien, J.R.R. 6
  363. tools 32
  364. touch 8
  365. transportation 16
  366. Trombley, Nick 44
  367. truth 15
  368. Tufte, Edward 31
  369. Turrell, James 6
  370. typography 25
  371. understanding 32
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  373. ux 100
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  375. Viollet-le-Duc, Eugène 4
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simplicity

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  • The art of not constructing

    It would be well if engineering were less generally thought of, and even defined, as the art of constructing. In a certain important sense it is rather the art of not constructing: or, to define it rudely, but not inaptly, it is the art of doing well with one dollar that which any bungler can do with two.

    Arthur M. Wellington, The Economic Theory of the Location of Railways
    1. ​​Economy of material and labor​​
    • simplicity
    • engineering
  • The amount of work not done

    Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work not done—is essential.

    Manifesto for Agile Software Development
    1. ​​-2000 Lines Of Code​​
    • simplicity
  • Economy of material and labor

    Whatever the comparative merits of [various bed framing methods], what is clear from Aristotle's Mechanica is that economy of material, and labor, was as much an issue in ancient times as it is now.

    Henry Petroski, The Evolution of Useful Things
    1. ​​The requirements of economy​​
    2. ​​The art of not constructing​​
    • simplicity
  • To be truly simple

    Why do we assume that simple is good? Because with physical products, we have to feel we can dominate them. As you bring order to complexity, you find a way to make the product defer to you. Simplicity isn't just a visual style. It's not just minimalism or the absence of clutter. It involves digging through the depth of the complexity. To be truly simple, you have to go really deep. For example, to have no screws on something you can end up having a product that is so convoluted and so complex. The better way is to go deeper with the simplicity, to understand everything about it and how it's manufactured. You have to deeply understand the essence of a product in order to be able to get rid of the parts that are not essential.

    Jonathan Ive, Steve Jobs
    1. ​​Less, but better​​
    2. ​​Tool-being​​
    • simplicity
  • Omit needless words

    When a sentence is made stronger, it usually becomes shorter.

    Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentence short, or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.

    William Strunk Jr. & E.B. White, The Elements of Style
    1. ​​Less, but better​​
    • brevity
    • simplicity
    • minimalism
  • Good design is simple

    Good design is simple. You hear this from math to painting. In math it means that a shorter proof tends to be a better one. Where axioms are concerned, especially, less is more. It means much the same thing in programming. For architects and designers it means that beauty should depend on a few carefully chosen structural elements rather than a profusion of superficial ornament. Similarly, in painting, a still life of a few carefully observed and solidly modeled objects will tend to be more interesting than a stretch of flashy but mindlessly repetitive painting of, say, a lace collar. In writing it means: say what you mean and say it briefly.

    When you're forced to be simple, you're forced to face the real problem. When you can't deliver ornament, you have to deliver substance.

    Paul Graham, Taste for Makers
    • simplicity
  • Conversations, not commandments

    Good software comes from a vision, combined with conversations not commandments. In a craft-focused environment, care for efficiency, simplicity, and details really do matter. I didn’t leave my last job just because I wanted to make something new. I left because I wanted to make it in a way I could be proud of.

    Pirijan Ketheswaran, Why Software is Slow and Shitty
    pketh.org
    • details
    • craft
    • simplicity
    • efficiency
  • Perfection

    It seems that perfection is attained not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to take away.

    Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars
    • perfection
    • design
    • simplicity
    • making
  • August short No. 2: Glass

    An Article by Riccardo Mori
    morrick.me

    Glass looks and feels perfectly tailored to my photo sharing needs and expectations. For me it’s even better than pre-Facebook Instagram in the sense that it pushes me to select and share what I think are good photos (same as it happens with Flickr), rather than making me obsess with getting ‘the Instagram shot’ at all costs every day or multiple times in a day. It doesn’t cheapen photography like Instagram has done for years.

    That’s why I hope Glass’s founders/developers will resist feature creep. Resist user objections like: I don’t think Glass is offering that much for the subscription price they’re asking. There are a lot of people who will gladly pay for having a cleaner, simpler, focused experience.

    • features
    • simplicity
    • products
    • photography
  • The return of fancy tools

    An Article by Tom MacWright
    macwright.com

    Technology is seeing a little return to complexity. Dreamweaver gave way to hand-coding websites, which is now leading into Webflow, which is a lot like Dreamweaver. Evernote give way to minimal Markdown notes, which are now becoming Notion, Coda, or Craft. Visual Studio was “disrupted” by Sublime Text and TextMate, which are now getting replaced by Visual Studio Code. JIRA was replaced by GitHub issues, which is getting outmoded by Linear. The pendulum swings back and forth, which isn’t a bad thing

    • complexity
    • simplicity
    • tools
    • software
    • technology
    • notetaking
  • In Praise of Small Menus

    An Article by Rachel Sugar
    www.grubstreet.com

    The best way to experience a restaurant, I have always felt, is by eating exactly what it wants to feed you. I do not want choices. I want the best thing. A restaurant might have five or ten best things, but it cannot have 45. There are many infuriating things about the world, but one of the more fixable is the sensation of acute regret from having ordered wrong. Why are there possibly wrong orders? Recently, I was at a fancy restaurant with great pastas and bad pizzas. So cut the pizzas!

    A kitchen that focuses on its strengths turns out consistently excellent things, even if that results in fewer total things.

    • food
    • ux
    • choice
    • simplicity
  • Don't Rush to Simplicity

    An Article by Shawn Wang
    www.swyx.io

    You've probably heard this story before:

    A businessman finds a fisherman, who is living an idyllic, peaceful life by the sea.
    He laughs and tells the fisherman how to get rich instead.
    The fisherman asks him what he will do after he gets rich.
    He replies that he would retire to an idyllic, peaceful life by the sea.

    There's supposed to be a deep life lesson in there, but it's always felt insincere to me.

    To me it is better to have reached the heights of a career, or suffered an epic defeat, even if I do end up in the same place as everyone else in the end.

    To me simplicity is made more beautiful when understood through a long personal struggle with complexity. When I can dance with it, having turned a mighty nemesis into an old friend, and teach others to do the same.

    Better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.

    1. ​​On the other side of complexity​​
    2. ​​Mountains are mountains​​
    • zen
    • simplicity
  • On the other side of complexity

    A Quote

    "I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity." — Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

    1. ​​Don't Rush to Simplicity​​
    • simplicity
    • complexity
  • Who the fuck is Guy Debord?

    An Article by Robin Rendle
    www.robinrendle.com
    1. ​​Long, unwieldy sentences​​
    2. ​​Imagining her​​
    1. ​​Psychogeography​​
    2. ​​Such tortuous syntax​​
    • writing
    • simplicity

See also:
  1. complexity
  2. perfection
  3. design
  4. making
  5. writing
  6. brevity
  7. minimalism
  8. details
  9. craft
  10. efficiency
  11. zen
  12. food
  13. ux
  14. choice
  15. tools
  16. software
  17. technology
  18. notetaking
  19. features
  20. products
  21. photography
  22. engineering
  1. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
  2. Robin Rendle
  3. William Strunk Jr.
  4. E.B. White
  5. Pirijan Ketheswaran
  6. Paul Graham
  7. Shawn Wang
  8. Rachel Sugar
  9. Tom MacWright
  10. Jonathan Ive
  11. Riccardo Mori
  12. Arthur M. Wellington
  13. Henry Petroski