Humans love to complicate things. We assume the smartest solutions must also be the most complex. But decades of behavioral science show the opposite: the simpler something is, the more likely people are to use it, stick with it, and benefit from it.
Psychologists have studied this for years.
Hick’s Law shows that the more choices you offer someone, the slower and less confident they become. Behavioral economists call it decision friction. Education researchers point to cognitive load—when people are given too much to process, they simply shut down.
You see this in investing, in health habits, in career planning, in software design… everywhere.
And I’ve seen it firsthand.
When I built LikeLive, the video platform used by students around the world in their college applications, we started simple: record a video, upload it, attach it to your application. Clean. Straightforward. Easy to use.
But then we started asking for suggestions—from students, parents, and schools.
Everyone had ideas:
“Add this feature.”
“What about this button?”
“Can you include this cool tool?”
Each request sounded logical. Helpful, even.
So we built most of them.
And what happened?
Traction slowed. Users got confused. Schools complained it felt overwhelming.
The more we added, the more friction we created.
The more friction we created, the fewer people used the platform.
When we went back, stripped away the clutter, and returned to a streamlined experience, usage went up again. Simplicity wasn’t just a design preference—it was a growth strategy.
This pattern shows up everywhere, especially in investing.
JL Collins, in his widely respected book The Simple Path to Wealth, basically gives one piece of advice:
“Put your money in VTSAX and relax.”
No complicated models.
No 100-page portfolio designs.
No jumping in and out of markets.
Just one low-cost index fund and patience.
Because simplicity doesn’t just reduce effort — it increases behavioral follow-through, which is the real driver of outcomes.
People don’t fail because they can’t understand complexity.
They fail because complexity discourages action.
This applies everywhere:
- A simple budget gets followed more than a detailed one.
- A simple career plan gets executed more than a five-page diagram.
- A simple investing strategy gets funded more consistently than a complicated one.
- A simple user interface gets adopted faster than a feature-stuffed one.
And here’s a line I’ve used for years because it’s true in every field:
“The more you give people to remember, the less they will.”
Not because people aren’t smart—because they’re human.
The world is noisy. Attention is scarce. Complexity punishes the very people you’re trying to help.
The real advantage comes from clarity. From reducing friction. From removing the unnecessary. From building systems that real people can use without thinking too hard.
Simplicity isn’t dumbing things down.
It’s making things doable.
And in any domain—money, career, education, technology—the things people actually do are the things that change their lives.
