Thursday, August 03, 2006

Chesterton on business

A while back, I found a blog that applies Chesterton’s insights to business -
Funny Business – Corporate humor, satire and occasional insight.

Here’s the July 27 entry:

Chesterton put it quite well back on November 30, 1912, when he said:

"Herbert Spencer, I think, defined Progress as the advance from the simple to the complex. It is one of the four or five worst definitions in the world ... It is obvious that human success is rather an advance from the complex to the simple. Every mathematician solving a problem wants to leave it less complex than he found it ... The true technical genius has triumphed when he has made himself unnecessary. It is only the quack who makes himself indespensable." (The Illustrated London News)

Right again, GK! The old axiom Keep It Simple, Stupid! still applies.

Blogs became popular because technology made the tools simple. Prediction: as technology advances, making Web site development easier still, blogs will cease to be. Instead we'll have do-it-yourself Web sites.

Just a guess really. What other technologists might technology put out of business?


There are entries on

G.K. Chesterton on Sales (suggesting the Chesterton may have been the first blogger!), G. K. Chesterton Defends the Medieval, G. K. Chesterton on Business, and more.

(Of course, Furor had already commented elsewhere about this blog – he seems to be everywhere! – but I thought it worth mentioning in Chesterton and Friends.)

1 comment:

Paul Pennyfeather said...

The quote about making complex things simple is one of the best by GKC I've ever read! I'm pretty well read on Chesterton, but I've never come across that one.

Priceless. Thanks for posting it.