How to achieve more by doing less | Steve Jobs Minimalist Approach
Minimalism is defined as a way of reducing the non-essential in order to focus on what’s truly important, what gives our lives purpose, what gives us joy and value. Steve Jobs was as much of minimalist in product design as he was in life. This philosophy I believe is one of the core reasons behind Jobs success.
It’s difficult to appreciate the benefits of Minimalism without understanding it. Jobs adopted a minimalist lifestyle, he wore the same black turtleneck, blue jeans and New Balance sneakers every day. His focus was always on the important things, what feature would the next iPhone have as opposed to what will I wear tomorrow?
Clearing away all but the most essential things — to make room for that which gives us the most joy. Clear away the distractions so we can create something incredible.
Former Apple CEO John Sculley recalled a visit he made to Jobs’ house.
“I remember going into Steve’s house and he had almost no furniture in it. He just had a picture of Einstein, whom he admired greatly, and he had a Tiffany lamp and a chair and a bed. He just didn’t believe in having lots of things around but he was incredibly careful in what he selected.”
This philosophy allowed Jobs to save time due to having less clutter and fewer possessions. That means less time cleaning and maintaining, and less time searching for things.
A minimalist who clears away distractions and single-tasks would also waste less time with those distractions and in switching back and forth between tasks. This allowed Steve Jobs to focus on what really mattered. On a to-do list of 10 things he would cross out 7 of the items if it didn’t allow him to achieve his goal.
Jony Ive, Apple’s chief designer describes
“The art of focus — even if it’s something that you think passionately about — focus means ignoring it and putting it to the side,” he said. “And often it’s at real cost. And he (Jobs) was remarkable at that.”
This design approach and heavy influence on simplicity was a hallmark of Apple products. Jobs’ love of simplicity in design was honed when he became a practitioner of Buddhism.
“Zen was a deep influence,” said Daniel Kottke, a college friend who accompanied Jobs on the trip. “You see it in his whole approach of stark, minimalist aesthetics, intense focus.” Jobs agreed. “I have always found Buddhism — Japanese Zen Buddhism in particular — to be aesthetically sublime”
Jobs felt that a core component of design simplicity was making products intuitively easy to use which stems a lot from the minimalist approach of reduction. A way to escape the excesses of the world around us — the excesses of consumerism, material possessions, clutter, having too much to do, too many distractions, too much noise. You only have to look as far as the IOS interface to get a clear idea of this concept.
“Why do we assume that simple is good? Because with physical products, we have to feel we can dominate them. As you bring order to complexity, you find a way to make the product defer to you. Simplicity isn’t just a visual style. It’s not just minimalism or the absence of clutter. It involves digging through the depth of the complexity. To be truly simple, you have to go really deep. For example, to have no screws on something, you can end up having a product that is so convoluted and so complex. The better way is to go deeper with the simplicity, to understand everything about it and how it’s manufactured. You have to deeply understand the essence of a product in order to be able to get rid of the parts that are not essential.”
-Jonathon Ive from the took Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacason
This core concept and philosophy was the foundation of Apple’s success. It’s more about intention and focus. For example you want to send an e-mail on an iPhone. The process has been so refined to make it as easy as possible for the user to complete the task in as few steps as possible.
Making it look easy is the hardest part.
Understanding this concept leads to a focus on what we are trying to achieve.
“We’re too busy being overwhelmed by physical, digital, and mental clutter that leads to increased anxiety and an overall sense of dissatisfaction. Minimalism is an antidote to that state of overload.”
My conclusion to all of this is that by being to reduce what doesn’t matter allows you to hone in what actually matters and what you are trying to achieve. Jobs made his life as simple as it could be so he could make the decisions that actually matter. A philosophy that perpetuated the products which he produced. Minimalism extracts the essence of saying you are being productive and being productive.
Sources Used:
https://theminimalistvegan.com/what-is-minimalism/
http://mnmlist.com/minimalist-faqs/
https://www.applegazette.com/ipod/steve-jobs-and-minimalism/
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/how-steve-jobs-love-of-simplicity-fueled-a-design-revolution-23868877/
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