Simplicity: What does it mean?
This is John’s first time speaking at FITC and I’m really glad he decided to present as he gave quite an inspirational session on simplicity and complexity. John is a world-renowned graphic designer, visual artist, and computer scientist at the MIT Media Labs. Named as one of the 21st Century by Esquire magazine, Maeda is the recipient of the highest career honours for design in the United States, Japan, and Germany, and serves on the board of trustees for the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.
This presentation was designed for anyone certainly feeling the overload of information in this digital age that we all live in. With so much information at our fingertips, how can we possibly keep things simple? I know I’ve found myself striving for a solution which ended up being a lot more complicated than anticipated.
Through John’s presentation, I began to realize that I’m overcomplicating things instead of focusing on the simple aspect of life. Life is simple. It is as simple as you’re going to make it or as complex as you’d like to have it. The choice is truly up to you, but how can one keep their “cool” with so much technology?
John had a great graph that explained the progression of life attributes such as: strength, vision, memory, etc. Everything is usually up in early age and then declines later on in life (depending on the attribute). So at around 65, the graph shows that is when your memory starts to decline. The only one thing that was on an incline was wisdom. The older you get the more wise you become. Everyone knows that, but he put it into perspective in such a way I can not explain!
This also plays an important role on keeping things simple. As we get older we realize that the important things we once thought existed in life aren’t such a big deal and we begin to minimize their importance. In other words, simplify the complex circumstances that occur throughout life. (Reduction)
He ends off by showing natural, beautiful things in life and ensures that life can be a lot simpler if we pay attention to these things. Sunsets, birds, beach, people are some examples of natural, beautiful things in life.
Technology is good and I encourage everyone to embrace it! Don’t find yourself in a position where technology is replacing many things in your life. A very cognitive day for me indeed! Thanks John.
Filed under: FITC, Business, Creative, Unplugged on May 6th, 2007
Leave a Reply