How simplicity trumps complexity in nature, business, and life.
We struggle to manage complexity every day. We follow intricate diets to
lose weight, juggle multiple remotes to operate our home entertainment
systems, face proliferating data at the office, and hack through
thickets of regulation at tax time. But complexity isn't destiny. Sull
and Eisenhardt argue there's a better way: by developing a few simple
yet effective rules, you can tackle even the most complex problems.
Simple rules are a hands-on tool to achieve some of our most pressing
personal and professional objectives, from overcoming insomnia to
becoming a better manager or a smarter investor. Simple rules can help
solve some of our most urgent social challenges from setting interest
rates at the Federal Reserve to protecting endangered marine wildlife
along California's coast.
Drawing on more than a decade of rigorous research, the authors provide
a clear framework for developing effective rules and making them better
over time. They find insights in unexpected places, from the way Tina
Fey codified her experience working at Saturday Night Live into rules
for producing 30 Rock (rule five: never tell a crazy person he's
crazy) to burglars' rules to choose a house to rob ("avoid houses with a
car parked outside") to Japanese engineers using the foraging rules of
slime molds to optimize Tokyo's rail system.
Whether you're struggling with information overload, pursuing
opportunities with limited resources, or just trying to change your bad
habits, Simple Rules provides a powerful way to tame complexity.
