Design is important to human beings; Something as simple as a clean desk can make a profound difference in productivity. The curse of human intelligence is believing you can overcome human nature with brain power. Smart people are frequent offenders. There is a lot of productivity to be gained by accepting the uniqueness of our nature and guiding it rather than denying it.

From does follow function. But they aren't distinct concepts when you add human beings to the equation. They are closely intertwined. How data is presented affects how we parse it.

I use terminals because I can access data quickly. There is a boost to letting go of graphical user interfaces and mouse input, and maximizing the time spent with fingers on the home-row and cutting down keystrokes.

But in cutting back cruft there's the risk of throwing the baby out with the bath water. There was a time when the display fonts and colors were limited by the technology. With the exception of lingering instances where the interface API has not kept up with the hardware capability, this is no longer the case. It's time to utilize modern fonts and color palettes not to get in the way of information but to improve the way we interact with and parse data on the command line.

The most elegant solution to a complex problem is often the most simple.

The concept is a fundamental tenant of mechanical engineering. Though many engineers only add complexity, the select few - the ones worth remembering - come up with an ingeniously simple solution.

In the age of micro electronics, it can feel like we've lost touch with this wonderful lineage. Physical mechanisms made of wound springs and metal gears have been replaced with silicon boards.

But electrical engineering has its own elegant simplicity.

A single resistor and capacitor can create a high-pass filter. Just four diodes can convert alternating current to direct current. And a single transistor opens the door to a mind-blowing list of possibilities.

Watching a presentation by Kwabena Boahen, I was impressed at what they achieved by applying the concept of simplicity to a traditionally complex field: the simulation of a field of neurons. Typically multi-purpose CPU and GPU chips are tethered together to run computations.

Instead Kwabena Boahen and his team created a simple neuron model in analog transistor and capacitor components. The result is fascinating, achieving huge density of neurons on a single chip, scalable to millions of neurons. The solution achieves moderately faster computation, massively cheaper cost, and many orders of magnitude lower power consumption than a traditional general purpose CPU and GPU with comparable output. All born out of specialization and simplicity.

I'm not advocating against complexity. Specialized solutions are inherently rigid, and come with their own set of quirks that may not make them preferable to more complex solutions. But when they do work, applied to a complex problem, a simple solution can be remarkable. And if you ask me, quite beautiful.

Over the last four months I've been cutting down on multitasking, and focusing my energy on one task at a time. It's been time well spent.

An adept mult-tasker, I was in the habit of constantly filling spare minutes trying to sate my appetite for learning new things; reading articles online while watching television; reading one last page while brushing my teeth before bed; writing code while conversing over what to make for dinner.

The results were mixed. I did accomplish a respectable volume of work, but the quality of code and knowledge retention was subpar.

Having been fascinated by the question of focused unitasking vs. multitasking for years, I decided to try things on the other side of the fence. Instead of cramming in tasks here and there, I now schedule blocks of time to focus on one task at a time. The idea is to delay working on a task until I can give it my complete attention. If I only have five minutes of spare, I won't even think of picking up the tech book I'm currently reading.

After four months, the result have been overwhelmingly positive. Not only has the quality of work has improved, but I get more done in less time.

More importantly, it leaves more time to enjoy other things without feeling like I'm wasting time I should be spending on learning. Instead of caving into the urge to read another article or write some more code, I can focus completely on other enjoyable tasks in life like cooking a meal together, or having a completely engaged conversation.

Like bunk-beds in Stepbrothers, there's I find I have so much more room for activities. And that my friends, is a good thing.

I write letters to companies. My goal is to share an understanding. An Understanding where I'm coming from, how it affected me, and an opportunity for additional dialogue. Often times these are positive letters, thanking an employee and letting a supervisor know how much I appreciated it. Other times it's a complaint, written to be constructive, honest, and most of all without malice - unless of course the problem is egregious.

I'm perplexed at the common responses to complaints from customer service departments, be it a knee-jerk defensive stance, an over-reaction towards compensation, or simply a canned response. I'm not looking for a fight or prostrate apology. I'm looking for an understanding, a recognition and ownership of the problem. A human interaction. A firm handshake.

Mistakes happen, and they always will. But like any human relationship, the best ones are built on honesty and integrity, not on defensiveness or overly pleasing. Customer service departments are in the unique position to be that human face for an otherwise nebulous corporate entity.

I just wish more companies would see it this way. It's the little things, but over time they add up to a lot.