That's been one of my mantras - focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard... — Steve Jobs

That's been one of my mantras - focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.

Author: Steve Jobs

Insight: We live in a culture that mistakes busyness for brilliance. Adding features, options, and complexity feels productive—like we're building something substantial. But Jobs points to something counterintuitive: simplicity is the harder road. It requires ruthlessly cutting away everything that doesn't matter, which means first understanding deeply what actually does. Think about the last time you tried to explain something you supposedly understood, only to realize you were fumbling through it. That's the gap Jobs is talking about. Clean thinking—the kind that lets you strip something down to its essence—takes real work. It's easier to pile on features than to ask "what's the one thing this needs to do?" Yet that discipline changes everything. Once your thinking becomes simple, your actions become powerful. There's no wasted motion, no contradictions pulling you in different directions. The practical payoff matters too. Whether you're building a product, learning a skill, or trying to change a habit, the simple version almost always outperforms the complicated one. People actually use it. They understand it. They remember it. That's not poetry—it's just how human attention works.

Source: Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs, p. 42, 2011