Simplicity is the End of an Art, and the Beginning of Nature - Bruce Lee
I don't know if this little phrase impacts you the way it still does me. I remember staring at this framed work and being pushed along the line by one of my buddies as I stood transfixed on those 12 simple words. Maybe it was just the moment, but then 20 years on I am still astounded by the powerful meaning of those 12 words that drove Lee to become one of the best martial artists in the world. You see, Bruce Lee practiced his art for hours each day, approaching it like an artist with a passion from within. He wasn't trying to compete with anyone but himself. He wasn't in search of a specific outcome. He simply wanted to become master of his art, and that meant taking what was difficult and hard to perform and repeating it until it became simple. Until it became his nature.
We have all experienced this to some degree in our lives. Whether its in sports, in the class room or in our profession, we have all tried something at first that was difficult to do, and then with practice it became, well, easy. I interpreted Bruce Lee's words back then to mean that when you have mastered your art such that it is 'simple' to perform, then its become part of your nature. Today I realize his words mean so much more than that. In short, we must all seek simplicity in all parts of our lives.
There is no question that today's world is anything but simple. We have only to look at the news to realize we have created a society that is built on the complexity of interpretation. Things that appear simple in nature are quickly interpreted to become derivations of something else, and off we go arguing, discussing and fighting for our interpretation of the thing. Every aspect of our lives can be simple at its roots, yet we often collectively choose to make it complicated or difficult. It happens at home, it happens at work, it happens on the television. And it happens by topic - the mosque debate in NYC, health care in America, financial regulation, immigration, the war on drugs, the war on terror, the economy, the elections etc. etc. etc. These issues are all very simple at their core yet the academics, politicians, lawyers and special interest groups behind them choose to make them painfully complex at a huge cost to society.
Yet there is hope that simplicity will and can prevail. And where we need it the most is in our government. As we look back on the past several decades it is clear that government in this country, and around the world, has morphed into a complex, 12-headed, monster that is slowly invading the lives, freedom and creativity of individuals around the world. The facts are frightening - approximately 10% of the population of Belgium are employed by the three separate governments that tri-lingual country has; in 2003 the US Federal tax rules (all codes, regulations and IRS rulings) had 54,846 pages; the judicial systems of countries... It is all very daunting, yet the question how does one begin to tackle the complexity of our government?
I am pleased to have a guest post by Francis Pedraza, founder of DoBand.org and a senior at Cornell University, on the topic of Government 2.0. Francis is a remarkable young entrepreneur who is focused on driving change at a global scale through DoBand.org (see previous blog here) - it is worth taking a closer look at this organization in the weeks to come as they roll out their product. Francis is generation Y, and he is out there pursuing big things not only through DoBand.org, but also through his actions, thoughts, ideas and passion. His piece on Government 2.0 is as thought provoking as it is simple in nature. When I first read his draft a few months back I was filled with a sense of hope for the future, not only because his ideas hit the nail on the head, but because he is undeterred by the challenges and obstacles to actually implementing them.
Government 2.0 is an example of what each of us can aspire to accomplish in our lives, today. And remember, simplicity is the end of an art, and the beginning of nature.
Government 2.0
by Francis Pedraza
It’s time for a new social contract.
Can you remember the last time government made you happy? ...
Thought not.
Can you remember the last time government made you angry or sad? ...
Oh, your last pay check.
Where’s all that money going? When will you ever see a return on that investment?
Every day, hundreds of millions use Google search. Ever reflect on this? An immense volume of digital information, organized and made “universally accessible and useful” through a single search bar. Count up the words on Google’s homepage: only thirty. And yet it opens the whole world for us - a global portal to expanding knowledge, friends, maps, videos, news, mail, images, books, music and more. And it’s free.
Look, if two Stanford students managed to create something so useful in just thirteen years, how come our nation can’t get it’s house in order? Go to the government’s website, usa.gov, or look at ny.gov, which is even worse. Nothing more clearly reflects the brokenness of our bureaucracy - it’s lack of vision, coherence, or usability. It’s mediocrity and waste. And if that’s ‘just’ their website, their best face to the public, imagine the dis-function and shambles on the inside...where it’s falling apart at the seams and crushing us all. It brings shame on all of us: it’s 2010, government is in the dark ages, and yet we’re in a time of explosive, exciting creativity and innovation.
Every time I take the NYC subway, I’m amazed by the impression that everyone’s got a high-tech device. It defies stereotypes - young, old, rich, poor - we’ve nearly all managed to get our hands on an iPod, MacBook, Droid, or whatever. It’s ubiquitous. Ten years ago, no-way. What that tells me as casual observer, is that our culture has learned a new language.
The phenomenon has reached an exciting stage: it’s both branching out and converging, all at once. We’re finding new applications for technology, from an infant swiping ABCs on an iPad, to an iPhone being adopted as a medical tool by doctors in Africa. The flip side is that this proliferation of diverse applications is being consolidated onto just a handful of devices. Consumer products, paired with the internet, have become an intuitive interface for interacting with all aspects of life.
How might we tap into these suggestive lessons from daily experience with the internet and consumer technology, to transform government?
Let’s imagine Steve Jobs as President of the United States.
Three things would change. I’d bet a round of drinks he would...
1. Frame everything around the user experience. Citizens are users, and the government delivers services. Guess what? Since World War II, the basic framework of our bureaucracy hasn’t changed, just grown on rotting foundations. Now it’s a tangled, clumsy, wobbling mass of weeds. President Jobs would restore a sense of purpose by reorienting the whole thing around people. Human-centered government begins with insisting on only releasing services that people will be irresistibly drawn to use and love. To get there, begin with keen observation. Look for super-normal actions and listen to what people don’t say; qualitative insights into people’s everyday lives give us the best clues to their needs and design solutions.
2. Less is more. President Jobs would be good at saying “no”. The biggest priority is restoring priorities: the government tries to do too much. There are too many programs competing for budget and attention. Few have done users much good so far. Few are worth putting our nation in debt to have. By focusing on one big opportunity at a time, we’ll discover government’s competitive advantage. There are only a very few things the private sector can’t do better than the public, so that’s what all the tax dollars should go towards. Simple is best.
3. Design for sustainable innovation. Society changes dynamically, so what’s up with static government? It responds so slowly, even in crisis - and that’s got to change. Design thinkers spend lots of time perfecting the innovation process. It’s an art, and it takes leaders who can get other people to embrace creative culture. Crowd-sourcing splits the atom. It releases innovation at scale. That’s why Facebook, Apple, and Google have been so successful. They’ve built stages for the rest of the world to play on. It’s all about designing a structured platform that provides an irresistible opportunity to the worldwide creative community to develop further. For example, what if the IRS ran a competition: “how might we simplify the tax code from 44,000 pages to 10 pages or less?” Let the people vote on a mini-site. Winning submissions get voted on in Congress and the winner gets to meet the President. Perhaps one day soon, we could be offered a choice of tax systems - the old one, or the new design!
As you can see, President Jobs would be so unpopular in DC. A bureaucrat’s worst nightmare: playing hack-and-slash with programs and departments, eliminating waste and fixing strategic mis-allocations of the people’s resources. With federal employees getting laid off, congressmen loosing pet-projects, and lobbyists losing their client’s pet privileges and special deals, there would be a bi-partisan outcry.
No big deal, because a great communicator would know how to win the crowd and sell the vision. The State of the Union address, with all it’s obsolete television era pomp and circumstance, would be replaced by a quarterly keynote presentation. President Jobs would never, ever come empty-handed; empty rhetoric isn’t his thing. He’s always got a fundamental innovation to unveil or big news to announce, and he never leaves without leaving an extra surprise. Rumor has it that this time, it’s a usa.gov redesign and a dot.gov iPhone App launch.
Using technology as a frame of reference, you may see that there’s an amazing amount of potential for us to transform government. Design thinking transcends party lines, old dogmas, and entrenched interest groups. Things may look pretty glum now, but this is America, and there’s always a way. I am optimistic, because sooner or later, the same forces that have touched all of our lives through consumer markets and the internet will give us Government 2.0.
Thought not.
Can you remember the last time government made you angry or sad? ...
Oh, your last pay check.
Where’s all that money going? When will you ever see a return on that investment?
Every day, hundreds of millions use Google search. Ever reflect on this? An immense volume of digital information, organized and made “universally accessible and useful” through a single search bar. Count up the words on Google’s homepage: only thirty. And yet it opens the whole world for us - a global portal to expanding knowledge, friends, maps, videos, news, mail, images, books, music and more. And it’s free.
Look, if two Stanford students managed to create something so useful in just thirteen years, how come our nation can’t get it’s house in order? Go to the government’s website, usa.gov, or look at ny.gov, which is even worse. Nothing more clearly reflects the brokenness of our bureaucracy - it’s lack of vision, coherence, or usability. It’s mediocrity and waste. And if that’s ‘just’ their website, their best face to the public, imagine the dis-function and shambles on the inside...where it’s falling apart at the seams and crushing us all. It brings shame on all of us: it’s 2010, government is in the dark ages, and yet we’re in a time of explosive, exciting creativity and innovation.
Every time I take the NYC subway, I’m amazed by the impression that everyone’s got a high-tech device. It defies stereotypes - young, old, rich, poor - we’ve nearly all managed to get our hands on an iPod, MacBook, Droid, or whatever. It’s ubiquitous. Ten years ago, no-way. What that tells me as casual observer, is that our culture has learned a new language.
The phenomenon has reached an exciting stage: it’s both branching out and converging, all at once. We’re finding new applications for technology, from an infant swiping ABCs on an iPad, to an iPhone being adopted as a medical tool by doctors in Africa. The flip side is that this proliferation of diverse applications is being consolidated onto just a handful of devices. Consumer products, paired with the internet, have become an intuitive interface for interacting with all aspects of life.
How might we tap into these suggestive lessons from daily experience with the internet and consumer technology, to transform government?
Let’s imagine Steve Jobs as President of the United States.
Three things would change. I’d bet a round of drinks he would...
1. Frame everything around the user experience. Citizens are users, and the government delivers services. Guess what? Since World War II, the basic framework of our bureaucracy hasn’t changed, just grown on rotting foundations. Now it’s a tangled, clumsy, wobbling mass of weeds. President Jobs would restore a sense of purpose by reorienting the whole thing around people. Human-centered government begins with insisting on only releasing services that people will be irresistibly drawn to use and love. To get there, begin with keen observation. Look for super-normal actions and listen to what people don’t say; qualitative insights into people’s everyday lives give us the best clues to their needs and design solutions.
2. Less is more. President Jobs would be good at saying “no”. The biggest priority is restoring priorities: the government tries to do too much. There are too many programs competing for budget and attention. Few have done users much good so far. Few are worth putting our nation in debt to have. By focusing on one big opportunity at a time, we’ll discover government’s competitive advantage. There are only a very few things the private sector can’t do better than the public, so that’s what all the tax dollars should go towards. Simple is best.
3. Design for sustainable innovation. Society changes dynamically, so what’s up with static government? It responds so slowly, even in crisis - and that’s got to change. Design thinkers spend lots of time perfecting the innovation process. It’s an art, and it takes leaders who can get other people to embrace creative culture. Crowd-sourcing splits the atom. It releases innovation at scale. That’s why Facebook, Apple, and Google have been so successful. They’ve built stages for the rest of the world to play on. It’s all about designing a structured platform that provides an irresistible opportunity to the worldwide creative community to develop further. For example, what if the IRS ran a competition: “how might we simplify the tax code from 44,000 pages to 10 pages or less?” Let the people vote on a mini-site. Winning submissions get voted on in Congress and the winner gets to meet the President. Perhaps one day soon, we could be offered a choice of tax systems - the old one, or the new design!
As you can see, President Jobs would be so unpopular in DC. A bureaucrat’s worst nightmare: playing hack-and-slash with programs and departments, eliminating waste and fixing strategic mis-allocations of the people’s resources. With federal employees getting laid off, congressmen loosing pet-projects, and lobbyists losing their client’s pet privileges and special deals, there would be a bi-partisan outcry.
No big deal, because a great communicator would know how to win the crowd and sell the vision. The State of the Union address, with all it’s obsolete television era pomp and circumstance, would be replaced by a quarterly keynote presentation. President Jobs would never, ever come empty-handed; empty rhetoric isn’t his thing. He’s always got a fundamental innovation to unveil or big news to announce, and he never leaves without leaving an extra surprise. Rumor has it that this time, it’s a usa.gov redesign and a dot.gov iPhone App launch.
Using technology as a frame of reference, you may see that there’s an amazing amount of potential for us to transform government. Design thinking transcends party lines, old dogmas, and entrenched interest groups. Things may look pretty glum now, but this is America, and there’s always a way. I am optimistic, because sooner or later, the same forces that have touched all of our lives through consumer markets and the internet will give us Government 2.0.
Our society is waiting, and our political landscape is ripe, for a political figure to speak the new language. The premises outlined above form the basis of a platform for a small, focused, innovative, and human-centered government.
It’s time for a new social contract. Demand it. Here’s how:
Step 1 - “Like” this on Facebook: @government2.0
Step 2 - Talk to other people about how the government should be as simple as an iPhone app.
Step 3 - Pester politicians about their lack of vision on remaking the government through design thinking and technology.
It’s time for a new social contract. Demand it. Here’s how:
Step 1 - “Like” this on Facebook: @government2.0
Step 2 - Talk to other people about how the government should be as simple as an iPhone app.
Step 3 - Pester politicians about their lack of vision on remaking the government through design thinking and technology.
Posts
I've my own little framed work..
ReplyDeleteDon't fight nature - Lee Pirard