On the surface

Google’s search engine is incredibly complex inside and incredibly simple on the surface – basically a search bar and that’s it.

Many startups take a different approach. Rather than hide complexity, they surface it.

They want us to appreciate the complexity. To see the brilliance of their solution. They want us to be as obsessed about the nitty-gritty-deep-down-dirty parts as they are.

They want us to get it.

Google understood that that’s not what we want. We want our struggles solved. We’re happy to trust you in being the expert so that we don’t have to. We don’t want to become an expert in your field because we have our own passion that we’re the expert in.

We just want a solution.

The simpler, the better.

The irony is that that’s what we recognise as being brilliant. The simpler you make it, the less we have to deal with the complexity, the more we appreciate it.

(That’s why the “I’m feeling lucky” button is still present on Google’s homepage.)