There’s a misunderstanding I see all the time. People hear ‘keep it simple’ and think it means keep it easy. Cut corners. Reduce effort. Do less.
That’s not what simplicity is. Simplicity is hard. It requires more judgment than complexity, not less. Any fool can add — subtracting takes precision. Any amateur can complicate — clarity takes real skill.
When I look back at my worst business decisions, they were almost always complicated. Multiple layers, many moving parts, no single clear thread of logic you could follow from start to finish. My best decisions — the ones that actually worked — were almost always embarrassingly simple. One clear problem. One clear solution. One clear ask.
The problem is that simple looks like you didn’t try. It can feel lazy to present something clean when you know how much complexity sits underneath. We dress up our thinking to signal effort. But the real work of simplifying — the distillation, the removal of everything that doesn’t need to be there — that is the hardest part.
The most sophisticated thing you can do in any domain is present something truly simple. Don’t apologize for it.
The Takeaway
Simple is not easy — it’s harder than complicated, and worth every bit of the effort it takes to get there.
Keep Moving Forward!
Not-So-Guru
If this one landed — The Not-So-Guru Manifesto is waiting.