Simple Can Be Harder Than Complex

Jobs said this in a BusinessWeek interview titled "There's Sanity Returning," published on May 25, 1998, during Apple's dramatic comeback under his leadership. He described simplicity and focus as twin mantras, explaining that making something truly simple requires more intellectual work than making it complex: "You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains." The remark reflected the discipline behind the just-released iMac, which stripped the personal computer down to an almost radical simplicity.