Compare these two sentences:

1. It was indicated to the President by his chief adviser that it should be attempted to formulate a decision to act at the earliest opportunity, in the best interests of circumventing what might otherwise result in the country flowering into embarking on a prolonged, extended and exorbitant military conflagration.

2. The chief adviser urged the President to act quickly to avoid war.

The first is messy, excessive and requires multiple readings to understand. The second is clear and straight to the point.

In many domains, it’s tempting to complicate things. We think what we currently have isn’t enough and look for external improvements. Here are some traps I’ve fallen into:

• To be productive, I need shiny apps.
• To run, I need expensive running shoes, a flipbelt and a Garmin watch.
• To make a sentence better, I need to make it long and use lots of adjectives.

But often, you have what you need to start. All you need to be productive is yourself. All you need to start running are your legs. The most elegant sentences are the simple and clear ones.

Add-ons can certainly help. But they also run the risk of overcomplicating something until either they’re too much of an investment for you to start or are unreadable.

Simplicity is beautiful.