Most people who give advice for a living either offer too much or too little. What moves me most is deceptive simplicity. By that, I mean ideas that may seem obvious at first blush, but whose accessibility turns out to be the product of rigorous thinking, skillful synthesizing, and a commitment to clarity. I say this because so many of us are so busy and so barraged by information that we're reaching a point of saturation. There's just not much room left in our working memories to deeply absorb anything truly new or complex.

We live in a world that defines "more, bigger faster" as invariably better. It's an ethic that places the greatest value on companies that offer ever more products and services, and generate ever higher profits. It's an ethic that rewards and prizes people who work the longest hours, move at the highest speeds, take the least downtime, and juggle the most tasks at the same time. But it's also an ethic that can survive and prosper only so long as capacity — the planet's resources and our own — exceeds the demand we make on it.