Simplicity

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Full Title or Meme

Things should be as simple as possible, but no simpler.[1]

Context

It’s really hard to fix, analyze or explain a complex solution.

Engineers just use an aphorism: Keep it Simple Stupid or just KISS.

Problem

It may seem natural to think that, to understand a complex system, one must construct a model incorporating everything that one know about the system. However sensible this procedure may seem, in biology it has repeatedly turned out to be a sterile exercise. There are two snags with it. the first is that one finished up with a model so complicated that one cannot understand it; the point of a model is to simplify, not to confuse. The second is that if one constructs a sufficiently complex model one can make it do anything one likes by fiddling with the parameters: a model that can predict anything predicts nothing.[2]

Solution

How many words does it take to describe the solution, not counting the UX.

With a solution like that it would be impossible to add anything that could make it better without invalidating the solution itself.

References

  1. Albert Einstein said something like that
  2. John Maynard Smith +1, The Origins of Life (2000-11-26) ISBN 978-0192862099