Everything should be made as simple as possible but not simpler

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Everything should be made as simple as possible but not simpler

Quotation Celebration

Thoughts that show us the way…

‘Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.’ (Albert Einstein)

There’s some debate as to whether this quotation originated with Albert Einstein. But the evidence points to his having at least a role in its final form. It may have taken on increased weight because his name was attached to it. But whether he actually said it or not, it seems to fit well with his personal philosophy. It’s a helpful aphorism either way.

I once heard that the difference between a ‘teacher’ and an ‘educator’ is that a teacher takes things that are complicated and makes them simple. While an educator takes things that are simple and makes them complicated. As a former school teacher, I can attest to the accuracy of that statement. My goal as a teacher is to make things as simple as I can without forfeiting or compromising their essence. I prefer it when others take that same approach with me.

There are two extremes the quotation addresses. The first extreme is to make something more complex than it is. Politicians are masters at this. Mostly because it allows them to appear as if they have an answer when they really don’t. Have you ever heard a politician answer a question by simply saying, ‘no’? Or even more rarely, ‘I don’t know’? They give an answer that’s meant to obfuscate and confuse. So the questioner cannot draw any practical conclusions from their remark. In fact, some people attempt to mislead by using words like ‘obfuscate’ rather than a simpler word like ‘confuse.’ But notice that I defined the word with the following word. So it’s okay. The goal should never be to make something more complicated than it is. Unless your purpose is to confuse or to be unclear. Which contradicts the very intent of communication.

The other extreme, covered by the second part of the quotation, is to make something simpler than it is. Some things by their very nature are complex. They can be simplified to a point, but only to a point—and no further. If we make them more simple than they are, we fail in the same was as in the first extreme—we confuse. We can confuse or be confused at EITHER EXTREME. By either making something MORE complicated than it really is. Or by making something LESS complicated than it really is. Both confuse, and both should be avoided if our goal is to be clear. Let me take a shot at giving some examples that may help shed light on the difference.

Our goal in communication should be clarity. To be understood. It’s difficult enough to be understood when we ARE CLEAR. How much more difficult it is when our communication is murky, confusing, or puzzling. When something is complex and we want to explain it, we want to retain the essence while making it as simple as we can. Our aim should be to make it simple enough to understand without doing injustice to its complexity.

I think there are 3 basic reasons why our goal should be to make things as simple as they can be without making them simpler than they actually are.

So have it your aim to make something as simple as you can make it, without making it too simple. If it’s complex, make it as simple as possible without denying or compromising its complexity. Explaining astrophysics with the phrase, ‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star’ is too simple. But I would not understand astrophysics at its complex level. So I would want an explanation that’s simple enough to understand while respecting the inherent complexity of the subject. That will do nicely. Keep it simple. But not too simple. How simple is that?

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Everything Should Be Made as Simple as Possible, But Not Simpler

Albert Einstein? Louis Zukofsky? Roger Sessions? William of Ockham? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: The credibility of a quotation is increased substantially if it can be ascribed to a widely-recognized genius such as Albert Einstein. Hence a large number of spurious quotes are attributed to him. I would like to know if the following is a real Einstein quote or if it is apocryphal:

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.

I like this saying because it compactly articulates the principle of Occam’s razor.

Quote Investigator: The reference work “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein” published in 2010 is the most comprehensive source for reliable information about the sayings of Albert Einstein, and it states [UQUE]:

This quotation prompts the most queries; it appeared in Reader’s Digest in July 1977, with no documentation.

The earliest known appearance of the aphorism was located by poet and scholar Mark Scroggins and later independently by top-flight quotation researcher Ken Hirsch. The New York Times published an article by the composer Roger Sessions on January 8, 1950 titled “How a ‘Difficult’ Composer Gets That Way”, and it included a version of the saying attributed to Einstein [AERS]:

I also remember a remark of Albert Einstein, which certainly applies to music. He said, in effect, that everything should be as simple as it can be but not simpler!

Since Sessions used the locution “in effect” he was signaling the possibility that he was paraphrasing Einstein and not presenting his exact words. Indeed, Einstein did express a similar idea using different words as shown by the 1933 citation given further below.

In June of 1950 the maxim appeared in the journal Poetry in a book review written by the prominent modernist poet Louis Zukofsky. The saying was credited to Einstein and placed inside quotation marks by Zukofsky [EPLZ].

There is also the other side of the coin minted by Einstein: “Everything should be as simple as it can be, but not simpler” – a scientist’s defense of art and knowledge – of lightness, completeness and accuracy.

The wording used by Sessions and Zukofsky is the same, and it differs somewhat from the most common modern version of the quote. Professor Mark Scroggins who has specialist knowledge of Zukofsky believes that the poet probably acquired the aphorism by reading the article by Sessions. Zukofsky also incorporated the saying in section A-12 of his massive poem titled “A”.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order starting in 1933.

Alice Calaprice the editor of “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein” presented the following 1933 precursor quotation and comment in her reference work [UQUE]:

It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience.

From “On the Method of Theoretical Physics,” the Herbert Spencer Lecture, Oxford, June 10, 1933. This is the Oxford University’ Press version. The words “simple,” “simplest,” and “simplicity” recur throughout the lecture. The version reprinted in 1954 in Ideas and Opinions, 272, is a bit different. This sentence may be the origin of the much-quoted sentence that “everything should be as simple as possible, but not simpler,” and its variants.

QI thinks that the existence of this quotation supports the plausibility of the hypothesis that Roger Sessions did read or hear something from Albert Einstein that catalyzed the dissemination of the maxim.

In January 1950 composer Sessions used the words “everything should be as simple as it can be, but not simpler” and stated that Einstein communicated this phrase “in effect” [AERS].

In June of 1950 Louis Zukofsky used the aphorism in the journal Poetry as discussed above [EPLZ]. That year he also placed it in one of his poems. The table of contents of the 1978 edition of the poem “A” says that section A-12 was composed in 1950 and 1951 [EALZ]:

Had he asked me to say Kadish
I believe I would have said it for him.
How fathom his will
Who had taught himself to be simple.
Everything should be as simple as it can be,
Says Einstein,
But not simpler.

In 1962 Time magazine printed a version of the quotation credited to Einstein in “A Letter From The Publisher.” The phrasing used is still distinct from the common modern version [AETM]:

In fields of specialized knowledge, we aim to render an account that is plain and simple, yet does no violence to the difficulty of the subject, so that the uninformed reader can understand us while the expert cannot fault us. We try to keep in mind a saying attributed to Einstein—that everything must be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler.

In 1963 a reader sent a letter to the “Queries and Answers” section of the New York Times attempting to gain information about the quotation. The reader specified no attribution [AENY]:

F.H.V. wants help in locating a quotation which he remembers as: “Everything must be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.”

In 1964 the syndicated newspaper columnist Sydney J. Harris used a version of the saying without giving an attribution. [ASJH]:

In every field of inquiry, it is true that all things should be made as simple as possible – but no simpler. (And for every problem that is muddled by over-complexity, a dozen are muddled by over-simplifying.)

In 1972 the maxim appeared as the solution to a word puzzle in the syndicated feature called Daily Cryptoquote [AESA]. The Yale Book of Quotations also lists a 1972 instance of this newspaper column [AEYQ]:

EVERYTHING SHOULD BE MADE AS SIMPLE AS POSSIBLE, BUT NOT SIMPLER—ALBERT EINSTEIN

The 1981 edition of “Prepositions: the Collected Critical Essays of Louis Zukofsky” contained a version of the essay that appeared in the journal Poetry in 1950. The text was labeled with the date 1948 by Zukofsky, but careful examination of the text and other documents in the time period by Mark Scroggins indicates that the date is inaccurate. Scroggins believes the essay was created at a later date by condensing the article from the Poetry journal. Thanks to top-notch researcher Victor Steinbok for pointing out the date in “Prepositions” [AEPZ].

In conclusion, Einstein may have crafted this aphorism, but there is no direct evidence in his writings. He did express a similar idea in a lecture but not concisely. Roger Sessions was a key figure in the propagation of the saying. In fact, he may have crafted it when he attempted to paraphrase an idea imparted by Einstein.

Louis Zukofsky also helped to disseminate the phrase, but it is likely that he learned of the phrase through the article by Sessions in the New York Times. Importantly, Zukofsky placed quotation marks around the phrase and directly attributed the words to Einstein. QI believes that the precise wording used in the common current version evolved from the statements of Sessions and Zukofsky. Thanks for your question. I tried to keep the answer as simple as possible.

Update history: On May 13, 2011 the January 8, 1950 citation for the New York Times article by Roger Sessions was added. Scholar Mark Scroggins was credited with finding this cite, and other changes were made to reflect this important piece of new evidence. Also, on May 13, 2011 Ken Hirsch was included as an independent discoverer of the Sessions citation. This inclusion was based on an examination of the history of changes to the WikiQuote entry on Einstein, and based on personal communication with Ken Hirsch.

[UQUE] 2010, The Ultimate Quotable Einstein, Edited by Alice Calaprice, Page 475 and Page 384-385, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey. (Verified on paper)

[AERS] 1950 January 8, How a ‘Difficult’ Composer Gets That Way by Roger Sessions, Page 89, New York. (ProQuest)

[EPLZ] 1950 June, Poetry, Reviews section, Poetry in a Modern Age by Louis Zukofsky, [Review of the volume “William Carlos Williams” by Vivienne Koch (The Makers of Modern Literature Series)], Page 180, Volume 76, Number 3, Modern Poetry Association. (Google Books snippet view. Verified on paper) link

[EALZ] 1978, A by Louis Zukofsky, Page 143, University of California Press, Berkeley, California. (Verified on paper)

[AETM] 1962 December 14, Time magazine, A Letter From The Publisher, Time, Inc., New York. (Online Time magazine archive; Accessed 2011 May 12) link

[AENY] 1963 December 8, New York Times, Queries and Answers, Page 457, New York. (ProQuest)

[ASJH] 1964 January 9, New Castle News, Strictly Personal by Sydney J. Harris. Page 4, New Castle, Pennsylvania. (NewspaperArchive)

[AESA] 1972 June 21, Daily Sitka Sentinel, Solution for Yesterday’s Cryptoquote, Page 2, Sitka, Alaska. (NewspaperArchive)

[AEYQ] 2006, The Yale Book of Quotations by Fred R. Shapiro, Section: Albert Einstein, Page 231, Yale University Press, New Haven. (Verified on paper)

[AEPZ] 1981, Prepositions: the Collected Critical Essays of Louis Zukofsky (Expanded Edition), Page 50-51, University of California Press. Berkeley. (Google Books limited view) link

12 thoughts on “Everything Should Be Made as Simple as Possible, But Not Simpler”

My own research on Zukofsky’s “A” indicates that Zukofsky probably got the Einstein “quotation” from a 1950 *New York Times* article by the composer Roger Sessions, “How a ‘Difficult’ Composer Gets That Way,” in which Sessions writes: “I remember a remark of Albert Einstein, which certainly applies to music. He said, in effect, that everything should be as simple as it can be, but not simpler.” The only handy citation: link

Mark Scroggins: Thank you very much for visiting the Quote Investigator blog and posting a wonderfully insightful comment. Your expertise and helpfulness is deeply appreciated. I have rewritten the article to reflect the information you provided.

Hello Barbara,
In a mathematical sense, simplification is used to take a complex expression to make it more easily read and understood (and indeed remembered). This process maintains all the complexity of the initial statement but in a simplified, more manageable state. But to make simpler is to sacrifice that complexity and results in an expression that is now compromised, something has been ‘lost in translation’ and along with it the validity of the expression. I hope that makes sense.

I found the Einstein’s phrase in a book and, because its meaning was ambiguous to me, searched the web and arrived at this page.
My understanding now is: Make everything as simple as possible. Not just simpler. Namely I think Einstein believed in the beauty of simplicity, utmost simplicity and hated intermediate simplicity.
Am I too simple?

Everything should be made as simple as it is possible to make it without losing its essential functionality. For example the fraction 20/60 can be simplified to 2/6, or further simplified to 1/3 without losing its meaning, and this should be done… but it cannot be further “simplified” to 13.

Being “simpler” may relate to the root of the other meaning of SIMPLE.
Webster’s 1913 Dictionary: Simpler: Weak in intellect; not wise or sagacious; of but moderate understanding or attainments;
By being simpler, we not only “sacrifice that complexity” as Amanda says but are weaken intellectually.
I am applying this to the current debate on global warming. One groups says it is man-made, the other the opposite. Is that an example of each being simpler?

Just like for the Murphy’s law, there are variants, lemmas and further derivatives, I like the following:
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not too simple”
Perhaps someone else may agree.

Wow, this is meta. I love it!

So Sessions attempt to make Einstein’s original phrase of:

“It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience.”

as simple as possible but no simpler resulted in the maxim:

“Everything Should Be Made as Simple as Possible, But Not Simpler”.

This means things to be made simple so as to be understood but no further simplified,if done loses its meaning.

I’ve always loved that quote. For me, it means that you should seek the simplest theory that matches the observations. For example, the simplest cosmological theory is that nothing exists. But that doesn’t seem to match the data very well. A much more complicated cosmological theory is that everything was created and is controlled by sentient, willful deities. That matches the data perfectly, because you can always attribute whatever you observe to the whim of some deity. The quote under discussion suggests that there’s some sweet spot between those extremes, and that’s what scientists and other thinkers should seek.

The Einstein quote does NOT mean “make it simple enough to understand,” as Dodd suggested above. Einstein spoke and wrote more than once about simplification. More to the point, he was decidedly AGAINST simplifying to the point that laypersons might understand (in effect, if it were simple enough to understand, it wouldn’t be a discovery worth lauding).

What he’s discussing in the quote is the scientific premise of parsimony (sometimes called Occam’s razor) – given two equally accurate answers, science prefers the simpler. The rub, of course, is the meaning of “equally accurate” and of “simpler.” Einstein quote actually puts him on the more complex side, as he asserts any satisfactory explanation, as he included “without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum.”

„Everything must be made as simple as possible. But not simpler.“

Вариант: Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.

Альберт Эйнштейн 279

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler” – Analysis

One of the most important physicists who ever lived, Isaac Newton, told us, that “Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.” After him, Albert Einstein wrote, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.”

Physics is a very complicated subject. Newton and Einstein are two of the smartest people who ever lived, and yet, they both emphasized the importance of simplicity. And any person can see why. If you discover a complicated fact about reality and you want to communicate it to people, so that they may benefit from your insight, you should try to explain it in the simplest way possible.

When a child asks you a question, you don’t use the biggest words you can find, but the simplest words. When Jesus wanted to communicate his message to people, he didn’t use obscure references that only he and a few others knew about, he used parables. Moses used ten commandments, not a hundred aphorisms.

The virtue of keeping thing straight to the point is a key to good business writing. When the stakes are high, you don’t want to get misunderstood. Where do we see complicated language? When someone is trying to hide something., like “terms and conditions”, or a college essay written by a student who doesn’t have anything important to say. As W.C Fields said, “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.”

In Understanding Power, Chomsky had a very simple criticism of Marxism, you don’t see “isms” in the sciences. No one subscribes to “Einsteinianism” or “Planckianism” or anything like that. People aren’t gods. They get some things right. They get some things wrong. And next time, they try to improve. While “Darwinism” and “Newtonianism” exist, people don’t think that these are doctrines you should be loyal to. A more rational way of assessing Marx’s ideas is to learn from the insightful things he had to say, and ignore the things he got wrong.

Biologists and physicists don’t accept any ideas as dogma but try to improve, or even replace previous theories with better ones. Chomsky concludes that these “isms” only show up in irrational domains. So any psychologist who is a Freudian or a Jungian is, on some level, spewing bullshit. In philosophy, people who claim to be specialists in post-structuralism or post-modernism, or in the theories of Derida or Lacan are also suspect.

Chomsky isn’t saying that none of these theories in the social sciences or philosophy have anything important to say, but the fact that they use obscure words and have “followers” who treat their “masters” like gods are not encouraging signs. Obscurity is often mistaken for depth.

«Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.»

jayan12

Member

«Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.»

This is a quotation by Albert Einstein. Could you please explain the meaning of this quotation.

Thanks in advance

Anglika

No Longer With Us

thod00

Member

Perfection is reached when there is nothing left to take away. If there is something there that can be removed without effecting the function, then it is an unnecessary complication and should be removed. If you take away too much then you lose information, utility, or clarity. Thus everything has a minimal form.

Consider the above paragraph for example. Could that have been said in fewer words without changing the meaning? I am always looking for perfect phrasing to convey my meaning, no more, no less, unambiguously, in the fewest words.

David L.

VIP Member

I am always looking for perfect phrasing to convey my meaning, no more, no less, unambiguously, in the fewest words.

Clear meaning is one thing, but that extra,well-chosen word, that slight inflection here and there, can bring ‘clear meaning’ crashing home with cutting effect, or another time, uplift it to bring a smile in response to an otherwise prosaic untterance.

Monticello

Member

I am always looking for perfect phrasing to convey my meaning, no more, no less, unambiguously, in the fewest words.

-following up on David L.’s astute comments:

-from the wiki entry for double entendre:

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Everything should be made as simple as possible but not simpler

Everything should be made as simple as possible but not simpler

Quotation Celebration

Thoughts that show us the way…

‘Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.’ (Albert Einstein)

Everything Should Be Made as Simple as Possible, But Not Simpler

12 thoughts on “Everything Should Be Made as Simple as Possible, But Not Simpler”