As the name suggests, Keep It Simple, Stupid literally means to keep things in their simplest forms for their best outcomes. It is not just a phrase that we create on our own, rather it was a saying by Kelly Johnson, the lead at Lockheed Skunkworks. His main agency was to portray that the things that actually avoid complexity and give the simplest solutions go a long way.
According to Wikipedia, KISS, an acronym for keeping it simple stupid, is a design principle noted by the U.S. Navy in 1960. The KISS principle states that most systems work best if they are kept simple rather than made complicated; therefore, simplicity should be a key goal in design, and unnecessary complexity should be avoided.
As a customer, nobody really cares how much the backhand team has brainstormed in launching a product in the market, all they care about is if the product available is simple enough for them to use or not. The simplicity of the product is the only thing that will eventually impact the customer.
The principle of “Keep it simple, Stupid” was initiated with the aim of product designing. The design should be simple enough to be understood by the general public. If the product cannot be understood properly, it cannot be used properly.
Variants of “Keep It Simple, Stupid” (KISS)
Some people might take offense to the word “Stupid”, therefore to avoid the inclusion of the word, different alternatives for the principle KISS. they are as follows –
- Keep it short and simple
- Keep it simple and straightforward
The main aim is to keep the process simple and both the above alternatives are successful in doing the same.
Albert Einstein once said…
“If you can’t explain it, you don’t understand it well enough.”
The outcome of the above statement is again the same. If you are trying to explain something to someone, it has to be easy enough to fit into everybody’s IQ and not just yours. Therefore, it needs to be in its simplest form and you need to be well versed in it.
There should be no hiccups in the process. This means that even if a 6-year-old wants to understand the product and its use he/she should be successful, that is the goal of KISS.
The service/product that with utmost simplicity is highly appreciated by the user in the market, just as the KISS principle implies. Several disciples support this principle such as software development, product designing, and interface designing.
Occam’s (or Ockham’s) Razor once said…
“ In a series of hypotheses, the simplest one is most likely to be correct unless the burden of proof rests on a more complicated theory.”
What does it mean? The simplest statement that is put to test is more likely to be correct than the complicated one. The “Keep it Simple Stupid” principle is applicated even in the scientific fields where the hypothesis are put to test, not just in the market but in other real-life applications too.
Caution with KISS
We see that simplicity is the solution in most situations but not always. There can be places where the complexity of the product actually enhances its value and gives its real power to it. Applying KISS to it will degrade the value of the product and the market will lose something very serviceable.
For instance, let us think of a car. A car is meant to be designed in a complex way and we cannot expect any layman to know every single thing about the mechanism of a car. So the KISS principle cannot be applicable in such a situation, where the complexity of the product is the key element of its functioning.
Conclusion
Simplicity goes long way. Any product, any service, or even when we talk about simplicity as a quality in people. Whenever the mechanism is simple, it becomes the key designing principle that becomes the drive for the outcome. Be it a hypothesis or a product, it is simplicity that wins the game in the end.
The KISS principle should be applied to human emotions too. We complicate our lives by creating a bunch of emotions that we hardly know how to process. We indulge ourselves in activities or relations which we are not sure how to handle. So, the solution is, to keep things straight and simple.
People state things like “I cannot control my anger” or “I don’t understand why I always keep going back to that girl/guy even when they hurt me”. They blame their actions on their emotions in a way where they cannot control their emotions stating that it is not their fault and making it complex.
Let us understand the fact that our emotions CAN be controlled, and you know what’s the key? Keep it simple, stupid!
Most importantly just Be yourself and Love yourself!
