Managing in the Gray

Managing in the Gray

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Holmes the jurist and military hero was also Holmes the

serious moralist. He searched hard for truth, but understood

how hard it was to find, in the law and in life. And he put

this plainly in a letter to a longtime friend and described the

kind of simplicity that, for him, mattered most. “The only

simplicity for which I would give a straw,” Holmes wrote, “is

that which is on the other side of the complex.”

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In other words, there are two kinds of simplicity. One

overlooks, ignores, or dismisses complexity. It’s the kind of

simplicity you see when somebody looks briefly at a really

difficult problem and then announces, with certainty, the

precise right answer. Holmes thought this kind of simplicity

was worthless. He onl ...