What it is
Brown Logic is a way of solving problems. It rests on four things: simplicity, elegance, stability, and the effective use of what you already have.
Find the least that will do the job. Then make that little thing sound, so it keeps doing the job for years without attention.
It is not about doing less for its own sake. It is about doing what is needed, once, well, and then leaving it alone.
Why brown
Brown is the colour of wood.
A plank is plain. It is strong. It ages well. It does its job without asking to be looked at. A good plank in the right place outlasts most of the clever things built to replace it.
Much of what is sold as sophisticated is doing what a good plank would do, at greater cost, with more to go wrong.
What it is not
Brown Logic fails in two directions, and both matter equally.
Not glamour
Bells, rings, whistles and candles do not fit. Nor does shine. If a part is there to impress rather than to work, it is not brown.
Not sloppiness
Loose strings, temporary fixtures and workarounds do not fit either. "For now" is not brown. Cheap and fragile is a different kind of waste.
Minimal and stable, together. Drop either one and it is something else.
How to say it
Say it when the plain answer is the right one.
- "We could build a dashboard. Or we could send one email a week. Let's do it the brown logic way."
- "A shelf and two brackets. Brown logic."
- "That fix is a workaround. It is not brown logic. Do it properly or leave it."
Brown, as in wood.
In writing, #brownlogic.
Examples
The examples, and the conversation about them, live on the Brown Logic page on Facebook, where they have been collecting since 2015.
When you find a simple, stable way of solving something, post it there with #brownlogic.