We often say that something is simple but powerful. And in many ways this is a misnomer. Things are often powerful because they are simple.
There’s a story about Picasso. He was sitting in a café one day when he was approached by a lady who’d recognised him. She asked if he’d draw a sketch on her napkin for her – and he did. But handing her the napkin back, he asked her for 5,000 francs. The lady, outraged, remarked that it only took him five minutes. “No, madam, it took me my whole life.”
Simplicity is not simple. It is often the result of reducing complexity to its most fundamental and profound parts. It’s on the other end of going through one haystack after another, after another until one finds the needle.