I finally got around to reading John Maeda’s book “The Laws of Simplicity“. Under 100 pages, the book is an easy commitment and can be read over a couple of coffee breaks.

Simplicity and organization are near and dear topics to my heart, so I happy to report that I believe John creates clarity around some important topics that other efficiency books obfuscate somewhat. He also lends some humanity to the topic of organization, which is sorely lacking in other literature, which typically address information and habit. His seventh law, emotion, specifically addresses the concept of Aichaku, the Japanese term for the attachment one can feel for an item, and how this concept can lead to better design. Having carried a Palm device for a decade and now an iPhone, I can deeply relate to this concept. Each time I upgrade such a device to the newest model, it takes time for my old attachment to fade and a new one to grow, even if the device is theoretically identical to the last.

In addition to emotion, Maeda includes trust as one of his core laws, and he discusses the concept of omakase, translated “I leave it up to you.” I believe the short discussion of the concept alone is enough to warrant reading this book.

Watch out for acronyms, this book is full of them, and luckily also full of self-deprecating humor about them.

The many deep positives of the book outweigh the trivial negatives, so this book makes it to my definitely worth reading list.

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