Being Simple

Part One
It's not that the male's brain is simpler.  He just wants to reduce everything to its essence, then go from there.  It is not that the female's brain is more complex, but she is comfortable swimming in complexity.  A female Einstein may not have had to reduce the relation of all matter and energy to five symbols, E = MC2.

This difference is often perceived as the difference in men's directness and the women's subtlety.  But what actually happens inside men and women to cause them to think so differently?

In utero, the male brain divides left and right.  A wall of cells dies in the middle.  This does not happen inside the cranium of our fairer sex.

From that early moment, the two brains operate differently.  One result of this difference - if a woman and man damage their speech centers in, say, a car crash or strokes - the man would more likely not talk again; but in the woman's brain with no barrier down the middle, an area in the other hemisphere may take over the speech function, allowing her to use her cell phone to heart's content.

Interestingly, this comfort-with-compexity does not hamper a woman's ability to distill and refine, or to appreciate the aesthetic of simplicity in music, design, writing, or anything else.

Part Two
Simplicity is not just less.

To quote Einstein again, "Everything should be as simple as possible, but not more so."  And we need to take Einstein one step further - to simplify well is not just being moderate in how much to trim, how much to leave.

The pared cello suites of Bach use his few, just-right notes to suggest two voices.  Beautiful simplicity  is not created by stumbling upon a few eureka words or notes.  It comes from a deep understanding of what is essential.