Al McGuire Quotes

Complexity is the enemy of clarity

Complexity is your enemy. Any fool can make something complicated. It is hard to keep things simple.

Complexity has and will maintain a strong fascination for many people. It is true that we live in a complex world and strive to solve inherently complex problems, which often do require complex mechanisms. However, this should not diminish our desire for elegant solutions, which convince by their clarity and effectiveness. Simple, elegant solutions are more effective, but they are harder to find than complex ones, and they require more time, which we too often believe to be unaffordable

I think something that's very important for us to communicate is usually very simple. Like breathing: Breathing is very simple. You don't do a dissonant 9th harmony or something in breathing. You just breathe, you know. I think that's how it is with very important messages.

..things are never as complicated as they seem. It is only our arrogance that prompts us to find unnecessarily complicated answers to simple problems.

Too many escape into complexity these days. For it is an escape for persons to cry, when this question of the equality of peoples is raised in India or in our own South, 'Ah, but the situation is not so simple.' ... no great stride forward is ever made for the individual or for the human race unless the complex situation is reduced to one simple question and its simple answer.

Forget the complaints against complexity; instead, complain about confusion.

My reaction to everything in life is when it gets a bit complicated to water it down and make it simple again.

I am a firm believer that if you can explain it to a kid, you're on the right track.

It's not very hard to be clever. It's far harder to be simple, obvious, and meaningful.

Early on, in discussions of financial oversight, people would say, 'Well, this is a very complicated problem, therefore it requires a complicated solution.' And at that step, I would say, 'Well, wait a minute. Just because it's a complicated problem doesn't mean the best course of action immediately is one that's complicated.'

No matter how complicated a problem is, it usually can be reduced to a simple, comprehensible form which is often the best solution.

Don't be too clever for an audience. Make it obvious. Make the subtleties obvious also.

I speak as simply as possible because the issue is too great to be obscured by eloquence.

There is nothing clever about confusion.

Every situation, no matter how complex it initially looks, is exceedingly simple.

Make subtlety obvious.

The problem is that we attempt to solve the simplest questions cleverly, thereby rendering them unusually complex. One should seekthe simple solution.

Simple truths are a relief from grand speculations.

Above all, keep it simple.

Insecure managers create complexity. Frightened, nervous managers use thick convoluted planning books and busy slides filled with everything they’ve known since childhood……. They worry that if they’re simple, people will think they’re simple minded. In reality, of course, it’s just the reverse. Clear, tough minded people are the most simple.

There is no problem so complicated that you can't find a very simple answer to it if you look at it right.

It is far more difficult to be simple than to be complicated.

Any idiot can be complicated. It takes a genius to be simple.

Clarity breeds mastery.