Indeed minimalist principle (or
less of things) of thinking and problem-solving is an attractive alternative – if it works or if one manages to live with it. In religion – Buddhist and Christian monks and nuns vow to live on the minimum required – with the understanding that the more one craves – the more becomes the entanglement of unhappiness.
Minimalist principle has another attractive name
Simplicity. We hear time and again – to see a problem in simple terms – breaking it down to fundamentals – once achieved a problem unfolds itself – opening the vista of alternative solutions. I have tried to point that out in the introductory paragraph of
Artificial Intelligence – the Tool of No Limit – quoting Krishnamurti (1895 – 1986). And we should not forget, what the Giant (Albert Einstein; 1879 – 1955) of the giants said:
everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.
In engineering of technical solutions of a particular problem – I would rather begin by asking:
• Are the available infos or tools – as minimum or
less as they may be – adequate?
• Have they been successfully applied in the past for similar cases?
• Am I confident that they are enough for me to defend the solution I propose?
If the answers to the above questions are
yes then one should feel satisfied to pursue a method –
whatever the name of that method might be. But, we should not forget that the horizon of knowledge is continuously expanding – exploring uncharted territories. Therefore what was adequate in the past – may not satisfy one's requirement or awareness at present.
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Dilip
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Dr. Dilip Barua, Ph.D, P.Eng, M. ASCE
Vancouver, BC, Canada
https://widecanvas.weebly.com------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 04-08-2021 04:26 PM
From: Mitchell Winkler
Subject: When Less is More
An intriguing article showed up in one of my news feeds with the catch line "When aiming to make something better, people often add elements to an existing design. However, an equally effective strategy might be to steer toward minimalism and remove existing features." The article is titled Our Brain Typically Overlooks This Brilliant Problem-Solving Strategy and is from Scientific American (tiered subscription model).
In case you can't open the article, here's the link to the embedded video with some great examples. Some so simple you could kick yourself for not having thought of.
Do you examples or experience from projects you have worked on where less is more?
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Mitch Winkler P.E., M.ASCE
Houston, TX
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