“Complex things are easy to do. Simplicity's the real challenge.”
Source: The Bridges of Madison County
A Conversation with Ward Cunningham (2003), The Simplest Thing that Could Possibly Work
Context: I actually enjoy complexity that's empowering. If it challenges me, the complexity is very pleasant. But sometimes I must deal with complexity that's disempowering. The effort I invest to understand that complexity is tedious work. It doesn't add anything to my abilities.
“Complex things are easy to do. Simplicity's the real challenge.”
Source: The Bridges of Madison County
Source: Complexity and Postmodernism (1998), p. ix
“I have an inferiority complex, but it’s not a very good one.”
(3 January 2005)
Unfit for Mass Consumption (blog entries), 2005
Context: I want to build vast machines of light and darkness, intricate mechanisms within mechanisms, a progression of gears and cogs and pistons each working to its own end as well as that of the Greater Device. That's what I see in my head. But, too often, I sense that many readers want nothing more complex or challenging than wind-up toys. It's dispiriting.
After the Revolution? (1970; 1990), Ch. 3 : Democracy and Markets
A Conversation with Ward Cunningham (2003), The Simplest Thing that Could Possibly Work
Context: The complexity that we despise is the complexity that leads to difficulty. It isn't the complexity that raises problems. There is a lot of complexity in the world. The world is complex. That complexity is beautiful. I love trying to understand how things work. But that's because there's something to be learned from mastering that complexity.
Source: What is Anthropology? (2nd ed., 2017), Ch. 4 : Theories
Source: 1980s–1990s, Barbarians inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays (1999)