Make every detail perfect and limit the number of details

Jack Dorsey wrote it on a whiteboard at Square. “Make every detail perfect and limit the number of details.” Most people quote the first half and forget the second.

The first half is a standard. The second half is a budget. Without the budget the standard is impossible. You cannot perfect forty details. You can perfect six.

Dieter Rams said the same thing with fewer words. Weniger, aber besser. Less, but better. The comma matters. It is not “less is better.” It is “less, and then make that less better.”

I try to run every screen through both halves. First, what can go? Then, of what stays, what is not yet right?