A simple sign of the KISS principle (excluding the last word)
KISS, an acronym for "Keep it simple, stupid!", is a design principle first noted by the U.S. Navy in 1960.[1][2] First seen partly in American English by at least 1938, the KISS principle states that most systems work best if they are kept simple rather than made complicated; therefore, simplicity should be a key goal in design, and unnecessary complexity should be avoided. The phrase has been associated with aircraft engineer Kelly Johnson.[3] The term "KISS principle" was in popular use by 1970.[4] Variations on the phrase (usually as some euphemism for the more churlish "stupid") include "keep it super simple", "keep it simple, silly", "keep it short and simple", "keep it short and sweet", "keep it simple and straightforward",[5] "keep it small and simple", "keep it simple, soldier",[6] "keep it simple, sailor", "keep it simple, sweetie",[7] "keep it stupidly simple", or "keep it sweet and simple".
While popular usage has transcribed it for decades as "Keep it simple, stupid", Johnson transcribed it simply as "Keep it simple stupid" (no comma), and this reading is still used by many authors.[9]
The principle is best exemplified by the story of Johnson handing a team of design engineers a handful of tools, with the challenge that the jet aircraft they were designing must be repairable by an average mechanic in the field under combat conditions with only these tools. Hence, the "stupid" refers to the relationship between the way things break and the sophistication available to repair them.
Dr. Seuss's ode to brevity: "So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads."
Johan Cruyff's "Playing football is very simple but playing simple football is the hardest thing there is";
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's "It seems that perfection is reached not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away";
Colin Chapman, the founder of Lotus Cars, urged his designers to "Simplify, then add lightness";
Attributed to Albert Einstein, although this may be an editor's paraphrase of a lecture he gave.[10], "Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler".
Northcote Parkinson, British academic and sometimes military officer and military critic, expressed this idea as "Parkinson's Third Law" (ca. 1957): "Expansion means complexity and complexity, decay; or to put it even more plainly—the more complex, the sooner dead."
Heath Robinson contraptions and Rube Goldberg's machines, intentionally overly-complex solutions to simple tasks or problems, are humorous examples of "non-KISS" solutions.
^The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English,
Tom Dalzell, 2009, 1104 pages, p.595, webpage:
BGoogle-5F:
notes U.S. Navy "Project KISS" of 1960, headed by Rear Admiral
Paul D. Stroop, Chicago Daily Tribune, p.43, 4 December 1960.
^The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang, Eric Partridge,
Tom Dalzell, Terry Victor, Psychology Press, 2007, p.384.
^Pit & Quarry, Vol. 63, July 1970, p.172, quote: "as in every
other step of the development process, follow the KISS
principle — Keep It Simple, Stupid."
^Officers' Call. Print Media Branch, Command Information Unit, Office, Chief of Public Affairs, HQDA. 1986. LCCN88655070. Remember the adage KISS; Keep it Simple, Soldier
^Sunday Post-Crescent (Appleton, WI) on November 4, 1973.
^Ram B. Misra (2004), "Global IT Outsourcing: Metrics for Success of All Parties", Journal of Information Technology Cases and Applications, volume 6 issue 3, page 21. Online version. Retrieved 2009-12-19.
