“Almost every problem that you come across is befuddled with all kinds of extraneous data of one sort or another; and if you can bring this problem down into the main issues, you can see more clearly what you’re trying to do.” Of course, simplification is an art form in itself: it requires a knack for excising everything from a problem except what makes it interesting, a nose for the distinction between accident and essence worthy of a scholastic philosopher.
