Simplexity

Simplexity
Jeffrey Kluger
Hyperion
ISBN: 978-1-4013-0301-3
Non-Fiction, Self-Help
Reviewed by Kate Greenwood

Simplexity by Jeffrey Kluger decomposes some of the complexities of life into their building blocks. However, even though Kluger is simplifying things, it doesn’t mean that you want to read his book in the few moments in bed before falling asleep. Due to the original complexities of things like technology, economics and healthcare this book requires and deserves your full attention.
Simplexity is marketed as a self help book but it goes beyond that to becoming a reference book of sorts. Kluger is well informed in his chosen topics and uses contemporary illustrations wherever possible to relate to the reader. He chose a variety of complexities to decode from the stock market to mortality to language development in babies. The reader will find themselves augmenting their knowledge on these subjects while perhaps referencing the dictionary at times for some foreign words.
Kluger explains criteria for identifying complex and simple matters while reiterating the flexibilities in such definitions. “Happily, not every complexity-based choice we make in life need be so all-fired serious. Sometimes, the rules can be just as elaborate and the dynamics just as complicated, but the stakes can be so low as not to matter at all. It’s in situations like these that we don’t so much work the rules of complexity and simplicity, but play with them. And it’s here that they can become fun.” He not only shows the fun that can be had with the rules but he also reveals some predictable patterns that run through all aspects of our lives that again make them easier to understand and deal with it.
Jeffrey Kluger invites the reader on a journey through the current and largely unknown science of complexity research in an effort to ease the minds that often get caught up in complicated matters that can very easily be teased into simple manageable components. Though he solves some of life’s mysteries, he also leaves the reader intrigued and curious to further explore this science.