September 23, 2009

The power of less

Viv has a great post inspired by Matthew May's book on Elegance. Here's a snippet, but I recommend the whole thing.

We humans seem to be hard-wired to believe that more must be better. Adding. Vitamin C is good for us so lots of Vitamin C must be better. Nope. Some food is good, so lots is better. True, when we were hunter-gatherers, not so much today. Some information is good, so more must be better. Just ask anyone who has tried to implement a change by providing more information,or even a compelling case...
We’re also hard-wired to do something. Acting. Just look at how much emphasise we place on busy-ness, and on multi-tasking.
Therefore: "We mistakenly pose the question 'What should we do?' before asking 'What is possible?' We want a solution but we don’t want the patience to wait for the optimal one, favouring implementation over incubation."
Oh, wow. I can just imagine many people being horrified. Those same people who crave control. And certainty.

Posted by Johnnie Moore at 13:40 in Facilitation
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