The Benefit of Clarity

“You don't need to outdo the competition. It's expensive and defensive. Underdo your competition. We need more simplicity and clarity.”

Jason Fried, Keynote Speech, SXSW 2006

Just discovered this quote from Jason Fried, the founder of the Basecamp project management/collaboration tool. I like it a lot. I think I might make it the company motto. It refelect so much about working in the public sector in post devolution Scotland. So much so that I also note that the word 'initiativitis' which previously I had thought was only used in casual conversation by tired public & voluntary sector workers actually registers 236 hits on Google UK.

That's evidence not only of the etymology of a new word, and the epidemiology of it's spread, but of the legitimacy of the phenomenon itself. I'm going to give this clarity and simplicity thing some more thought. If I think about it harde enough i'm sure I can make it much more complex than it needs to be...