One of my pet peeves is the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid.
Don’t get me wrong: It’s worth striving for simplicity wherever possible. But some problems are not simple and have simple solutions. Sometimes KISS is the shortcut to getting it all wrong.
Another take on simplicity is a quote floating around in social media these days:
Oh, so Einstein said that. So you can’t argue with that.
Well, he probably didn’t as Wikiquote reports:
So let’s stick to a real Einstein quote:
“Everything should be as simple as it can be, but not simpler”
A great quote related to data quality and master data management by the way.
Liliendahl on Data Quality 
And even if the quote could be attributed to Einstein, being able to explain something in simple terms does not make it a simple problem.
While i wholeheartedly agree with your statement, the reality in a lot of places, is still that to get approval/action higher up the chain, you should never exceed more that a single paragraph of text to avoid loss of attention 🙂
Should we challenge that notion – absolutely! But often as not, it’s the balance between principles and progress 🙂
Henrik,
Couldn’t agree more.
It never ceases to amaze me how often people assume that business problems are simple and can be assessed and resolved using a spreadsheet and a few columns of (dubious) data!
Julian