By way of speaking of the future of online video, the Internet theorist Clay Shirky recently made some interesting observations about how increasing organizational complexity tends to lead to an inevitable collapse. The gist of the idea is that, while organizations tend to initially grow and prosper through increasing sophistication, at some point, their model becomes so complex that they are no longer nimble enough to respond to evolving circumstances and aggressive challengers. As complexity increases, more and more of an organization’s efforts tend to go toward sustaining that complexity. As Shirky puts it:

“Early on, the marginal value of this complexity is positive—each additional bit of complexity more than pays for itself in improved output—but over time, the law of diminishing returns reduces the marginal value, until it disappears completely. At this point, any additional complexity is pure cost.”

The same logic applies in writing. There’s a pronounced tendency in marketing to do what I call “packing the suitcase.” This is when a single sentence is crammed to overflow with all the many charming proof points and benefit statements a marketer thinks they’ll need for their company’s long journey into the public’s consciousness. The following is an actual (necessarily unattributed and anonymized) example of this:

“We bring innovative ideas to maximize your efficiency with flexible solutions that adapt to your evolving needs and consistently give you detailed performance data so that you can have transparent control over costs at all times.”

This sentence happened because the company in question is focused on its own internal, organizational needs, rather than their clients’ real-world needs. It is the company that needs to come up with “innovative ideas,” and “adapt,” and be “flexible” and “consistent” and “transparent.” What do they think that their clients need? “Efficiency” and “control.” Here’s a less-cluttered expression of the same idea:

“We make you more efficient, and give you more control over your costs.”

But the suitcase is still packed; the important question is, why would a client want to be more efficient and in control of costs? These are both abstract business objectives. Here’s what they actually mean to say:

“We save you time and money.”

Original? No. Human needs are not original. Human needs are eternal. Human needs are simple. And as Shirky sums up:

“When the ecosystem stops rewarding complexity, it is the people who figure out how to work simply in the present, rather than the people who mastered the complexities of the past, who get to say what happens in the future.”

Gregory Edwards is a writer for the Siegel+Gale New York office.

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