The Power of Less
Posted on May 30, 2007
We are constantly barraged with advertising that says, more is better. Truth is, less has greater power than more. Commonly referred to as "less is more", this mantra of minimalism is a term that grew out of the art community in the late 60s and early 70s. The concept however is age old and is true in every area of our life.
Economics
Do you want more financial freedom and less financial worries? Live a simpler life. You can give yourself a significant raise without changing jobs or taking a job that pays the same. It’s actually simple: Live in a smaller house, commute a shorter distance, drive-out the miles on your car and save to pay for one in cash, eat-out less, shop at Goodwill and garage sales. Purposely choose to lower your standard of living. Life can be very exciting when you see the long-term affect in giving and saving more.
Productivity
I hear a typical complaint and have been guilty myself. "Too much is demanded of me." Most of the time people are really saying, "I don’t know how to manage myself well." Being productive starts with simplifying your work flow. Group, prioritize and categorize work into a few key segments. My post on How to Get Stuff Done goes into more detail on how to tackle a tough project. The key is to streamline and group tasks to eliminate work flow noise, i.e. do like work together.
Spiritual
Jesus said in Luke 17:33 "Whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it." Living life to help others is much more fun and enjoyable than to simply gratify and fill ones own whims and desires. I don’t do this well enough, but when I set my mind and heart towards serving God and others, I find that the many troubles of this life become smaller and the joys larger. It’s a sure fire way to gain more in life and decreases the constant tug of desire for more money, possessions, and other elusive, temporal pursuits.
Software and Web Development
Wirth’s law states, "Software is decelerating faster than hardware is accelerating." As a web developer, I’m constantly challenged to reduce complexity and streamline variables for both management and performance. My latest major project reduced a site from 80+ tables and several thousand pages of code to six tables with a few pages of code. An earlier post WordPress Plug-in Tips discusses practical ways to utilize features on your site. Whether managing a blog or a full-scale enterprise site, the KISS method will always serve you well for a more optimized and user-friendly experience.
Design
Good design generally follows a simple guideline: form follows function. Part of Googles success is their devotion to simplistic design. They have not deviated from offering the lightest loading search engine on the web. Part of the rise of the blog is the realization that people are not wowed anymore by groovy, heavy page wrappers. They are interested in content that is fresh and offers useful information. Website design should be more like a picture frame with the content being the real work of art. The frame complements and helps focus the reader on the content, but a frame alone does little to educate, entertain or bring pleasure to the reader. For more on web design, check out: Priniciples of Design at Digital Web Magazine.
Go for It
Do yourself a favor and let go of things that hinder and entangle you from being who you were created to be. Life really can be exciting when we let go of unnecessary stuff. There are many tips and tricks in almost any arena to living life with less. The power is in the pursuit and the constant choice for what is important. I wish you well and look forward to learning what works for you.
Filed Under Productivity |
Related Posts
- A Different Spin on Life
- Power of Delayed Gratification
- Meebo is for Me
- Stickies on the Desktop
- Technology Tyranny or Submission
- FireFox Hack Opens Favorite Sites in Sidebar
- Old Friends, New Friends
Comments
8 Responses to “The Power of Less”
Leave a Reply
I compleatly agree. NucleusCMS showed me the same thing by doing in a very small ammount of code what others do with much more (and often not as well). The perfection of that ideal as a software abse for websites has become a personal quest of sorts these last few years.
Matt, yes it is a never ending pursuit for power and simplicity in development isn’t it. NucleusCMS looks very interesting. I’ll have to check it out regarding a side experimental project I’m working on. At work it’s a Windows environment and to play by the rules I have to develop in .Net which will be interesting and learn the Microsoft way.
Incidentally, I am very close to installing Ubuntu on my home machine. Just need to answer a few questions about compatibility w/ periferrals which I believe can be compensated for with some work. I’m wanting more security, better performance and frankly less maintenance that windows requires, even for someone like myself who generally knows what they are doing.
I once made an experiment in my strife to simplify my life. I sat down each evening and wrote down three tasks - not more, not less - for the next day to accomplish. If I couldn’t perform a task, its card would be saved for the next day. After three days I did not write new cards.
If I am honest: I can only solve one problem a day. Less is more indeed.
Zep, very interesting experiment. I like the concept. I have days where I solve multiple problems, but others where I don’t really solve any. Probably works out to be about the same in the end. I’m just less consistent in my work habits w/ ups and downs. The principle remains the same though, huh.
So the “go for it” section pretty much encapsulates what I did six months ago by leaving my job. I was designed to do that, but I guess I was done. Like a steak left too long on a BBQ. *sniff* But my brain is relaxed now (until I tackle changing my blog skin) and I’m feeling that more will come. Like that movie about the corn field and baseball — If you build it, they will come. We joke about that at our home, but I believe it with all my heart and soul.
Kelly, You have a mature voice in your writing. I am very excited to see where you take this venture. You go girl. What a great thing to let go of things that weigh you down and do what is your passion. Life is too short to put stuff on hold. I’m believing that more everyday.
I’ve been considering dumping doz in favour of nix but why did you choose Ubuntu?
Well, I haven’t actually chosen it yet. Looking for the most graphically rich for the family and Ubuntu seems to be getting the press on that end.