Short introduction for Less Is More

 I would be lying if I claimed to have invented less is more principle before others. The fact is that the same things have been valid throughout history. The first pioneer is Vilfredo Pareto from Italy, who found that 20% of Italians owned 80% of the land. The Pareto 20/80 principle also worked on other things. The exact ratio is not the most important thing but it is the dominance of minority compared to the majority. According to Pareto, the ratio did not only apply to Italy but to other countries in different eras. After Pareto, Harward Professor George K. Zipf next discovered the same phenomenon. His version of it was that a small portion of all resources organized themselves so that 20 to 30 percent of the resources corresponded to 70 to 80 percent of the results.

The American engineer Joseph Juran, who was behind the quality revolution after Zipf, used the principle so that the most of the quality defects came from a small number of sources. Juran also used a ratio of 20/80 which was not entirely accurate but a bit towards that. There was no interest in the United States, so Juran left for Japan, where he was taken seriously.

Less Is More philosophy as a starting point

Less is more is not just a way to make money more efficiently in retirement or make better use of time. It is a holistic philosophy that produces well-being. This is largely due to the fact that human life does not flow smoothly. Both bad and good events accumulate over certain periods of time. Certain events affect more than others. In practice, the relationship between these is unbalanced. People are happiest for a little while in their lives. This also applies to accidents. It is possible to add the happiest times by thinking about own life and trying to identify happy moments. Once identified, you need to think about how to add them.

Many of the things people do out of either compassion or habit cancause an accumulation of nausea. Other things are important to many and produce maximum benefits. These things cannot be identified but must be defined by everyone. For many, doing the wrong job out of a duty to society, their parents, or their family can lead to moments when everything goes under the bench. The amount of work is also not directly proportional to the results. A person is most productive in less time than it takes to visit the workplace. Even then, it’s better to do fewer things at the same time as productivity drops by focusing on too many tasks.

Interpersonal relationships, goods, and money

The impact of others on one's own well-being varies. Not all friendships should be maintained. Relationships can only be one-way. Only one person gets well and the other suffers. Everyone should think about what is best for themselves, draw conclusions from it and act on it. You can also think about this from the perspective of another and think about whether the relationship itself is a hanging stone. It is better to focus on smaller and deeper relationships than on more and more superficial ones. You are, to the greatest extent possible, the sum of your relationships. A few of your closest people have the biggest impact on life.

The amount of goods is absurd for modern people. Many of us buy a lot of stuff that we don’t need. I have calculated that I own hundreds of goods. I don’t think I’m a very clumsy buyer if I compare myself to others. Few hundred goods are the amount that people mostly need. Most of them are not used all the time. Less is more thinking means that it is pointless to buy two shoes for fifty euros when you can buy one good quality one hundred euros instead. More expensive shoes are likely to last longer and are more comfortable than cheaper ones.