Time & Perspective Quote by Edward de Bono

Edward de Bono draws a hard line between necessary sophistication and gratuitous complication. He argues that complexity often persists not because reality demands it, but because we have not done the thinking required to make things clear. Complexity burns cognitive fuel: it steals attention, slows decisions, raises error rates, and creates barriers to entry. Simplicity, by contrast, is a service to thinking and action.

This stance fits his larger program of lateral thinking: challenge assumptions, reframe the problem, and design a better path. Simplicity is not a naive trimming of detail; it is the outcome of deliberate creativity and ruthless prioritization. When a process, interface, or policy is simple, it allows users to focus on purpose rather than deciphering the system. The gain is not only speed but fairness, because opaque complexity favors insiders while clarity levels the field.

Much complexity survives because it flatters expertise, sustains legacy structures, or signals thoroughness. De Bono calls that bluff. He is not denying that some domains are intricate; he insists that we carry the burden, not the user. In product design, this means intuitive defaults and fewer steps. In public policy, it means readable forms and rules that map cleanly to lived reality. In organizations, it means dissolving handoffs, clarifying roles, and shortening feedback loops. Each case demands hard thinking now so that many people can think less later.

The principle echoes Occams Razor and the best of engineering culture: simplicity as a measured end state, not a starting guess. It also responds to an age of information overload, where attention is the scarcest resource. When something could be simple yet remains complex, what we witness is waste. De Bono invites leaders and creators to treat that waste as unacceptable, and to practice the discipline that makes clarity look effortless.