Simplicity -- Nine Theses

• Simplicity is linked with the correct, the logical, the self-evident.
• Simplicity should not be complicated; nor should the complicated be simplified. Albert Einstein once said, "One should make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler."
• Only simplicity has the chance of becoming timeless and generally valid.
• No one person has copyright on simplicity; it originates, suddenly exists -- and nobody knows from where; it is both target and result.
• Simplicity is less a question of technical detail, but rather a problem of the basic mental attitude to things technical.
• Simplicity, too, can be high-tech, indeed it has to be, if design is to be acceptable in terms of energy and material. And yet, simplicity is modest, manifest, easy to use, to adapt and to dispose of.
• Simplicity is not primitive, ordinary or rustic, on the contrary, simplicity is a product of collective reflection and development. Accordingly, simplicity is something that has matured, the ripe fruit of a frequently long process.
• Vulgarity is the enemy of simplicity -- in everyday life, in art and in language.
• Simplicity has to come into being; it can be found, but it cannot be forced.