Many creatives struggle to avoid creating anything that seems on the surface to be too simple or obvious. In the effort to prove how accomplished they are, they over-complicate their work and include too many fringe and loosely beneficial elements. The assumption is that this will prove the value of their work.
But we too easily confuse value with complexity. These are two exclusive concepts that are not necessarily related. The result is that we waste time and valuable creative energy spinning round and round over-complicating what should be very simple.
Why do we do this? Why do we over-complicate our work and its deliverables?
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I have noticed a related confusion some people demonstrate of confusing the length of a product with depth. Sometimes I have read a lengthy article that the author thinks of as deep but which is, in fact, simply wordy, redundant, and insufficiently edited to delete ruminations that may have helped the author but not the reader.
Agreed. This is a challenging thing for writers – to remember that it’s about the audience, not to assuage your own interests.
brilliant, not only creative value but spiritual as well!
simplicity can be efficiency!
Thank you, Dan.
Todd ~ Wow, your points are so spot-on. Cynicism is a foremost block to wonder. The most successful creatives – and thinkers and scientists – often are those who can convey complex ideas with elegance and simplicity (not over-complicate simple ideas). I’ve been prone to the faults you identify and have witnessed them among the authors and creatives with whom I work. “Creativity requires humble curiosity…”
Thanks for your lucid observations, analysis, and tips.
Thank you, Jeffrey. Wonder is essential, no? (The act, not the bread.)
Todd ~ Wow, your points are so spot-on. Cynicism is a foremost block to wonder. The most successful creatives – and thinkers and scientists – often are those who can convey complex ideas with elegance and simplicity (not over-complicate simple ideas). I’ve been prone to the faults you identify and have witnessed them among the authors and creatives with whom I work. “Creativity requires humble curiosity…”
Thanks for your lucid observations, analysis, and tips.
Todd, I enjoy how you so often hit the nail on the head when it comes to, I’m not sure how to say it other than, the human side of being a creative producer. Not that it is uniquely American, but having lived overseas for many years, I’ve notice that cynicism and sarcastic humor are often utilized here to distance ourselves — to allow us not to care. I’m sure I will be thinking through your thoughts all day because I think they have wider application as well. Happy Holidays!
Fantastic – thanks for the comment about distancing. I’ve noticed the same – in myself as well – and I think it’s a protective mechanism. I aspire to be more vulnerable to critique by staying closer to my work. Not treating it as too precious, but staying closer to it, I think.
Excellent read. I find the best work tends to come from the simplest idea. Complicating things only makes it worse and who ever is on the receiving side loses because of the creator’s need to complicate things.
Agreed. Simplicity is DIFFICULT, which is why we often don’t get there.
What are you standing over my shoulder as I work or something? No fair! Seriously, thanks for this. I think pride affects me way more than I would like to admit. Takes the form of working a concept to the nth degree because when I “unleash it upon the world” it has to be head and shoulders better than those whom I may have mentored or whatever who are actually out there doing it while I am “perfecting” it. Right.
Didn’t you see me standing there? ;)
This is a phenomenal post. This conversation exposes a society issue at large. We see the same thing in large corporations and government and not just in the creative realm.
I believe the true elephant in the room is that it comes down to economics. When creatives need to maintain their livelihood, they have to continually look for ways to differentiate and compete. I think this is the root of why we over complicate our deliverables.
Another thought is that pruning and carving things to the simplest form takes time, focus, and is in fact an art.
Excellent point, Lawrence. There is definitely a need to differentiate. Perhaps differentiation through simplicity is the next wave? Lots of talk about it.
Leonardo da Vinci once famously said: Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. I think he was onto something. It’s actually much harder to keep it simple… that’s probably why not more of us do it LOL
Great topic Todd… thanks for delivering this simple [yet oh so valuable] message…
Looking at this from another angle, I’ve also found that many businesses provide what they see as value at the expense of quality. I was dealing with a company who’s idea of value was to provide loads and loads of CDs and mp3s for clients – trouble is, these were appalling quality and made the company look second-rate. Could they see it though? NO. They were convinced that value was quantity not quality.
With my science background, I’m used to applying Occam’s razor (the law of parsimony, economy or succinctness) to many of things I do. You’ve reminded me that it can be applied to creativity as well. One simple solution that hits the spot is all that is required.
Or to quote Einstein: “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
These are excellent observations, Karen. Excellence is in the eye of the beholder, and it can be frustrating when there is incongruity between the expectations of the client and the aspirations of the artist. I’m not making a pitch for laziness here, but that we need to be willing to embrace simplicity whether we have to work hard to get to it, or if it’s serendipity.
Thanks again Todd!
Creatives dance with the obvious, revealing the simplicity of genius to the world.
I also think it’s funny that the people who criticize a create for their idea being obvious usually never executed on the idea.
In other words, when they say, “Oh, I could have done that.”
The appropriate response is, “Perhaps, but you didn’t.”
Agreed.
I saw someone Tweet about your podcast today and downloaded it. I really enjoyed this outlook. Thank you sir.
K, bye
Thank you, Christopher.