Making "More is More" true

“Less is more” is a popular insight to the point of being trite.

We reference it when designing products. We use slightly different language when invoking it for group decisions (“too many cooks in the kitchen”) or personal obligations (“priorities”).

We as individuals and groups do best when working within constraints. Sometimes the constraint feels like pressure (only having so much financial runway), sometimes its just an intellectual tendency of restricting the field of possibilities (dichotomies when combinatorics are possible).

Ultimately while I’m a believer in the notion “less is more”, I can’t help but wish we could achieve “more is more”. It’s feels like a deficiency that we can’t make that work, particularly at the group level.

While I believe a smaller group can better cooperate & make smarter decisions, shouldn’t one of the major programs of the future be about inventing ways to scale group size without sacrificing these qualities?

Take politics. It’s no surprise that a ~500-person body is dysfunctional. I’d bet it would work better with just 5 people. But there’s understandable apprehension in moving in that direction. So how do we make 500 people work together better? Or better yet 327 million?

I think many new developments be they in crypto, remote work, communication, or open source are working in this direction but I haven’t seen it framed quite like this.

Making “More is more” true has to be one of the more impactful things we can work on.