Simplicity vs Minimalism

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I praise simplicity, but not minimalism. 

Many use the two words interchangeably, but doing so is a mistake. Minimalism is not simplicity. (Simplicity is—however—a type of minimalism).

Simplicity can be defined as conceptual minimalism, meaning fewest concepts needed to master. So, simple means easy for an intelligent person to master. Minimalism just means sparsity. Here are two examples illustrating the difference:

1. Skeuomorphism is simple but not minimal.

2. Consider two means of getting meat for dinner—buying meat in a store or hunting for meat with a spear. The first means is simple but not minimal, and the second means is minimal but not simple. 

Members of modern culture hate simplicity and often choose between minimalism or messy complexity. Both make things more difficult. As for an example of how minimalism makes things more difficult, consider this: some general-purpose Linux distributions and desktop environments (e.g., Arch, Gentoo, GNOME, Xfce) are unfriendly toward their users precisely because of their baked-in minimalism. In contrast, Linux Mint (Cinnamon) is an all-purpose distro that is simple without being minimal. Indeed, my user experience with Cinnamon has been very positive.

Verdict: minimalism is bad, but simplicity is good.

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