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In Pursuit Of Elegance: Why The Best Ideas Have Something Missing (2009)

by Matthew E. May(Favorite Author)

3.77 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0385526490 (ISBN13: 9780385526494)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Crown Business

review 1: This is not a step by step book to creating elegant solutions or products. Rather, it presents a compelling argument on why subtraction can lead to elegance. Why doing nothing is so difficult for humans and organizations but is many times the right thing "to do". Why in-action or restraining your brain from wanting to add can lead to breakthroughs in elegant design.The author works hard to give examples from a wide range of disciplines. Because of this broad stroke of the brush, the only complaint would be that he does not delve deep enough into some of these examples. But by leaving some space, it made me want to dig deeper into some of the examples. Engaging a readers curiosity to seek more is exactly what elegance is all about. And I think the author balanced this perfe... morectly.
review 2: A nice (I suppose you could say elegant) little book about why less often is more. Anecdotal, well-written, with at least some examples I found very interesting (the "shared space", rule-free concept of traffic regulation exemplified in the Laweiplein crossing - see it on Youtube - for example, as well as the Nigerian clay pot vegetable coolers,) some I found rather repetitious (the iPhone's elegant simplicity) and others done better elsewhere (Christopher Alexander's pattern language approach to architecture.)Much to like, some to admire, and the book is summed up in the four elements of elegance: Symmetry, seduction, subtraction and sustainability. A nice little read, recommended. less

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