The Simplicity Principle: Six Steps Towards Clarity in a Complex World

by Julia Hobsbawm

American Book Fest Best Book Award 2020 - General NYC Big Book Award 2020 - General Business Book Awards 2021 - Personal Development & WellbeingModern life is complicated, much more so than it used to be. Acclaimed author and social entrepreneur, Julia Hobsbawm, shows you a simpler way. The Simplicity Principle challenges the assumption that all things that are complex have to stay that way. It helps keep things as lean, simple and focused as possible. Smartphone users experience concentration interruptions every 12 minutes of the day, there are over 250 billion emails sent every 24 hours and by 2021 the internet will have created more than 3.3 zettabytes of data. Yet complexity doesn't have to dominate, complicate or clutter our lives. Based on a hexagonal model, this book shows you that it's easy to streamline and simplify both your professional and personal lives with lessons based on the natural world. For anyone who feels that life can be too much, The Simplicity Principle will help you break free of the endless choices and complexities that we face in the world today. It's time to gain control of your focus and productivity, and most importantly, KEEP IT SIMPLE.

Genres: Self Help, Productivity, Nonfiction

264 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 28, 2020

Reviews

[Richard Propes · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Simplicity Principle: Six Steps Towards Clarity in a Complex World" explores simplicity in an increasingly complex digital age and challenges the assumption that all things that are complex have to stay that way.

Written by Julia Hobsdawm, an entrepreneur and writer who often writes about the problems and solutions of adults in the machine age, has been described as "one of the most important public intellectuals in the U.K." and was awarded an OBE in The Queen's Birthday Honours for services to business.

The word "intellectual" is an important marker here because, at its core, "The Simplicity Principle" is a book targeted more toward intellectuals than the general readership. While it's nearly always understandable, the simple truth is that Hobsdawm's style of language and organizational structure is unquestionably more appropriate for a business setting than it is for anything related to self-help, individual growth, or anything along these lines.

The description of the book goes as follows - "Learn how to develop a clear and calm way to be more creative, gain greater focus and reclaim productivity." While the title of the book indicates a rather streamlined process, "The Simplicity Principle" simply doesn't live into its promise.

Hobsdawm focuses much of the material in "The Simplicity Principle" on the concept of Hexagon Action - the hexagon being six-sided and "mathematically perfect." She then proceeds to draw out the six sides of simplicity and their "six fixes." So, each side of simplicity has "six fixes" - as near as I can tell, this gives us closer to 36 steps not including the seemingly endless variations she adds into the mix to further muddy the already unclear concepts.

There's a core of simplicity within this all - there really is, but because Hobsdawm is an intellectual she takes great pains to explore each "axiom" or "fix" in a myriad of ways rather than actually modeling the notion of simplicity. It may be true in the U.K. where she is based, but in the U.S. it's most definitely true that the multiple layers of organizational structure wouldn't be considered simple and Hobsdawm's dogged insistence on further breaking things down and exploring them in geometry concepts only complicates matters.

Having only recently finished reading "The Simplicity Principle," it's an honest truth that nearly all of it has vacated my brain and I'm referring back to the book in order to effectively present a review where I read the entire book, took notes, did a little side research, and actually did understand her points.

I simply never integrated them.

Hobsdawm utilizes tremendous research and resources, but has an unusual habit of reinforcing their information with "he is right" or "she is right." As she's utilizing these individuals as experts, it seems to be an odd language choice to reinforce they're correct which essentially puts the expertise back on her.

Hobsdawm explores other concepts, as well, including the world of bees. The book's closing chapters, a recap and an exploration of six hexagonal thinkers, per the author, are at least engaging and a nice way to reinforce and actually simply organize the material.

"The Simplicity Principle" will likely work best for those in the business world seeking to simplify and connect in a world that doesn't always encourage that. Business professionals and intellectuals will more closely identify with Hobsdawm's linguistic choices and organizational concepts and will appreciate the lack of extraneous fluff.

While organizational structures can be quite effective and memory devices quite efficient, Hobsdawm's repeated use of "six" for nearly everything becomes so overly obvious it began to feel like more of a gimmick.

"The Simplicity Principle: Six Step Towards Clarity in a Complex World" has productive thoughts and tools to offer for the simplifying business professional, however, I would have difficulty recommending it for any other audience. While I'm a devotee of simplicity, I found very little in the book helpful and can't help but feel as if the title of the book itself is deceptive regarding what to expect from Hobsdawm's material. Overly complex in language and structure, "The Simplicity Principle: Six Steps Towards Clarity in a Complex World" is, rather ironically, desperately in need of simplifying.

[Catherine · Rating 1 out of 5]

For a book on simplicity this is one of the most incoherent books I have ever read. Yes it follows the structure of 6 but of course there are not really 6 steps there are 6 sub sections to each area plus a bunch of add ons of more lists of 6 things you should do in the final chapters. The book got more and more rambling as it went on like it was an insight into the authors thoughts throughout the day that she just happened to write down with no adherence to the very principles she tries to outline. Plus a lot of random sections on the life of bees that really had nothing to do with simplicity except that their honeycomb is hexagonal? I started to lose the will.

If you are thinking of buying this, much better to read the article below and you have the best bits of the book - no further insights to be gleaned from reading the longer version.

https://www.strategy-business.com/art...

[Tõnu Vahtra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Snowflakery (it's a thing), midfullessness, hexagons and why we should be honeybees or ants instead... this book is too much on the esoteric side of the spectrum for me as a mostly rational person, in general it felt oversimplified and naive at times. In rare cases low Goodreads rating (2.96 at the moment of writing) does not mean that the book is not good in some surprising way - this is not one of those cases and you are better of reading some other book on productivity and balanced mental state (don't even bring the word complexity in to this). The main reason why I picked up the book was that I had been seeing it prominently placed in bookstores for several times and when holding it I did not see through the more engaging headlines.

[Bodies in the Library · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the latest selection for the APDO Book Club and three stars from me means that I believe the author has achieved what they set out to do but that I personally didn’t love it.

Of course, by this point I’ve read a lot of productivity books and almost all the ones Hobsbawm mentioned were familiar to me, so I’m not the best reader. If you were starting on your journey with this branch of self-help book I’m sure it would be an even more interesting and insightful read.

I found the obsession with hexagons a bit annoying. There’s having a strong metaphor to bring your writing together and then there’s mentioning it every few paragraphs until they start to feel hemmed in by hexagons! Unfortunately I am aware of the use of the hexagon in mapping for war games (thanks to my lovely partner) and I kept on waiting for this to be mentioned. Spoiler alert: it was possibly the only form of hexagon usage that Hobsbawm overlooked.

That said, I liked many of the hints and tips shared and especially the sections on networking. The author has done a tonne of great stuff to help people develop the soft skills needed to form good connections and I really enjoyed her expertise on that. She is also humble about the advantages she realises she had from being historian Eric Hobsbawm’s daughter. And she is a terrific advocate for those who found university was not for them - a career in publishing was not disadvantaged by not having a degree and she did ultimately end up with an honorary professorship at the Cass Business School. So yay for finding your own way while being aware of the privileges that not everyone has.

Looking forward to hearing what the rest of the book club thought of it.

Three Word Review: Life in hexagons.

[Jung]

Though we’ve made the world more complex with our technological advancements, human beings prefer simplicity. And to that end, we can learn a lot from nature – namely, bees and the way they construct their hives. They use a clear, simple, hexagonally connected structure. In fact, we can apply something called Hexagon Action to simplify our lives. To do so, we need to prioritize six distinct facets: Clarity, Individuality, Reset, Knowledge, Networks and Time. By addressing complexity in each of these areas, we can reach a happier state where we’re more connected to ourselves – and less to our mobile devices!

Actionable advice:

Set a small number of realistic targets.

Rather than giving yourself an unrealistic number of resolutions, set a few that you know you can definitely achieve. Whether that’s a chapter of your novel or a stock-investing target, make sure it’s something within reach, especially if you arrange your time and resources properly. Don’t overextend yourself!

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To simplify our lives, we can learn from bees and their hexagonal hives.

Imagine the inside of a beehive. All along the walls of this living structure are cells filled with honey, pollen, and bee-larvae. Squint into this dark, buzzing cathedral, and you’ll see that these cells are all hexagonal.

That’s no coincidence. Bees use the hexagon because it’s the perfect shape to build their interlocking honeycombs. The hexagon is also resilient, able to withstand a great deal of force, even when built from light materials. Simple and effective, the bee’s hexagonal structures are a marvel of engineering.

Like us, bees live in enormously sophisticated networks. And while most of us wouldn’t want to live in a society as uniform as the beehive, we can learn from the way bees organize themselves.

Let’s consider their use of the hexagon. This simple shape can be combined in endless ways to create a strong, connected structure. Rather than bewildering complexity, they offer clarity and definition. Compare that to the way we organize our own communities and businesses, with their sprawling bureaucracies, and you can see why the simplicity of the hexagon is so appealing.

That’s on a macro level. On a micro level, the hexagon serves as a great reminder of ways to simplify our individual lives. Simplicity is achieved through streamlining priorities. And the best way to remember how to streamline our priorities is to visualize them.

Neatly enough, the six facets of the hexagon also match the number of things that we can comfortably hold in our working memory at any one time – six. So this shape, used successfully by nature, can serve as a great visual tool to remember what’s key in our day-to-day lives.

To that end, the author has constructed a whole system around it, which she calls Hexagon Action. Through focusing on six different facets, she proposes that we can streamline our lives to the things most important to us. These are Clarity, Individuality, Reset, Knowledge, Networks, and Time.

So, armed with nature’s simple wisdom, we’ll explore each component individually.

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In an “always-on” culture, it’s vital that we reset.

There’s a scene in the TV series Mad Men where the chief protagonist, maverick ad-man Don Draper, suddenly collapses. He’s run himself into the ground on a diet of cigarettes, whiskey, women, and too much hard work. The problem is, he’s only 36 years old.

Mad Men is set in 1950s New York, but the story of burnout is with us today. In fact, when many people have an “always-on” work mentality, it’s even more of an affliction.

We forget that we’re only human. Surrounded by our technological devices, we forget that we don’t have limitless bandwidth and the infinite ability to multitask. Unlike an iPhone or PC, we can’t do hundreds of tasks at once. And we eventually reach our limits after too much work, just like Don Draper.

We need to stop completely before burning out. This might mean taking a long holiday or simply meditating for a few moments during a lunch break. Whatever it is, we must completely disconnect from the world of work and busyness.

Then, we need to empty our minds of anything urgent in order to recharge. Rather than mindfulness, we also need mindful-less-ness – the state where we just shut off and let our subconscious do its necessary restorative work. People achieve this peaceful state in different ways, from going on a long walk to just playing video games in their pajamas. It doesn’t matter what we do – the important thing is to empty our minds.

Another powerful way to reset is through travel. The author’s father, the historian Eric Hobsbawm, loved nothing better than traveling to recharge his mind and body after long stints of work. He would engage in what he called “noticing” – which meant he would carefully absorb the stimuli of a new city or region in order to leave his cares behind.

According to the work of social psychologist Adam Galinsky, travel can be restorative. By immersing ourselves in new stimuli and experiences, we stimulate growth in our brain through neuroplasticity. Happily, these neurological changes can have a very beneficial effect on our mental health.

And rejuvenated – through meditation, playing video games, or traveling to far-flung countries – we can return to work as healthier, happier, more effective people.

[Kirsten Lost 2022 · Rating 2 out of 5]

An intensely complex book that wants to teach you about clarity. I struggled a lot with this, to be honest.

[Dora Okeyo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's the thing: This book advocates for simple living, and doing so by exploring 6 principles for better living. This is great, however, I have to admit that I loved that the author took her time in explaining how and why these principles matter. So, this is not a book to read in a sitting- it's the book club kind of book, that demands your attention and your focus and honesty. It is the kind you read in bits and question, reflect, note and act upon insights.
I learned something new about 6 being the perfect number according to Euclid and now I love hexagons...albeit briefly, and the six principles shared herein are a call to action to keep it simple and also learn from nature.

Thank you Netgalley for the eARC.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author is obviously extremely bright, and there are some excellent ideas here, including using bees as a running theme. We need more simplicity and it can be a true challenge to achieve and maintain. While I didn't find most of the suggestions and ideas applicable to me, they're valid and will likely help a number of readers.

Thanks very much for the ARC for review!!

[Vinicius · Rating 4 out of 5]

The simplicity principle is a guide to achieve greater things in life with less clutter in our minds. A great book with lots of advice for us, especially those of us who insist in live with more things than needed.

[Fran Cormack · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had some useful nuggets of information, but nothing new. And trying to force everything into “sixes” felt a trifle forced.

[Matt Rose · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a waste of paper.

[Miguel Panão · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of interesting material covered in the Simplicity Principle. An excellent starting point to begin reviewing your life through the eyes of simple and profound mindset changes.

[Chris Edmondson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not impressed.

[Alexandria Blaelock · Rating 3 out of 5]

This would have to be the most complicated book about simplicity I have ever read. Skip to the back for the six fixes and save yourself the confusion.

[Melisa Buie · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a book on simplicity, this is a very complex explanation.
The author has such great material and a lot of it could haven left out. I’m glad I read it but really struggled at times.