The Art of the Minimum

Albert Einstein:"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
Leonardo da Vinci: "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."
E. F. Schumacker: "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius—and a lot of courage—to move in the opposite direction."
Edward Tufte: "Clutter and confusion are failures of design, not attributes of information."
Steve Jobs: "Focus isn't about what you do. It's about what you don't do."

The principle of Occam's Razor, also know as the Law of Parsimony, states roughly that, all other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best. I find that the approach of thinning things down to their essential core, eliminating distractions and side-shows, is a key element of success. It has application in many areas of designing products, running meetings, building businesses, and pretty much any other facet of life that you care to examine closely. Getting down to that core essential is not easy, it's a really difficult thing to do, which is why I think of it as the 'Art of the Minimum'.  We humans are natural pack-rats, and we need to act against our natural inclinations to get to state of uncluttered purity. We second-guess ourselves all the time, and this leads us to pile on all kinds of extra stuff to act as a kind of safety net. But this Art is one well worth practicing.

Michaelangelo: "The more the marble diminishes, the more the statue grows."