The Art of Simplicity: What Picasso Taught Steve Jobs
This was Steve Jobs’ favourite piece of art.
It’s a series by Pablo Picasso, showing the gradual simplification of a bull — from detailed realism to the most minimal of lines.
Why did Jobs love it?
Because simplicity often takes more time than complexity.
The Process of Distillation
Picasso didn’t just make one drawing and call it a day.
He spent countless hours reworking these designs — starting with the most detailed and slowly stripping away anything non-essential.
The goal wasn’t to make it basic.
The goal was to make it essential.
Jobs adopted the same philosophy at Apple. It became one of the company’s central principles:
“It takes a lot of hard work to make something simple, to truly understand the underlying challenges and come up with elegant solutions.”
Why Simplicity Wins
Simplicity scales faster and more sustainably than complexity.
Complexity creates friction. Simplicity creates flow.
Time spent understanding the core of something is never wasted — whether you’re designing a product, building a company, or solving a personal problem.
The Takeaway
We need to be reminded more than we need to be taught.
Picasso’s bull is a reminder that the path to simplicity is deliberate, thoughtful, and — ironically — complex.
When you work on your next project, ask yourself:
- What am I really trying to solve?
- What’s at the core of this issue?