The co-founders of Axios popularized the “Smart Brevity” mantra for years. Now, in the age of AI, comes another: “Simplify.” Such is the name of a new book by Mike Allen, Jim VandeHei and Roy Schwartz, who co-founded the political news site in 2016 to try and help get people smarter faster. It’s a mantra VandeHei says worked for the company, prompting the trio over the last two and a half years to figure out how to adapt it for a tome.
In some ways you become almost childlike, like I want to share this with other people because it’s making such a such a huge difference.” The book features a mixture of anecdotes from their personal lives that detail how the three “confront” their challenges, “delete” such distractions to “amplify” their own lives. VandeHei, for example, carves out a dedicated hour for the gym every day and says no to most social functions he doesn’t deem strictly necessary, as does Allen. The latter also had to unlearn his lengthy writing habits from his days spearheading Politico’s “Playbook” newsletter for Axios’ “AM” newsletter.
Schwartz, who now runs Axios’ business-focused venture Axios HQ, flipped the barrier his dyslexia provided into a tool to break down complicated topics into simple points, while MS NOW star Rachel Maddow explains her logic behind her all-black uniform for her eponymous primetime show. (“I no longer wanted to spare even the infinitesimal effort of choosing a daily variation on my standard, boring outfit,” she says in the book.) “We came to all this the hard way, and we came to it by making mistakes,” Allen says. That you are able to spend more time on what you’re uniquely good at, and what brings you joy.“ AI is as much a character in the book as any of the co-founders or the company itself, reflecting Axios’ ethos that the technology will be a “moonshot” for its growth (a sentiment that came days after it laid off 11 staffers in March). The company’s enthusiastic adoption of the technology has also made its way into several columns written by VandeHei and Allen, along with a post written by publisher Nick Johnston that drew some mockery over his admission that he used AI as a guide while reading “The Last of the Mohicans.” “I don’t have a lot of friends that are reading the classics at the beach,” Allen says in his defense, urging people to read the piece.
Instead, they suggest deploying AI agents to help with everything from clearing calendars to posing questions over whether a task, menial or otherwise, is necessary. That you’re aware of the seductive nature of it, you’re aware of where you could start seeing the parts of your brain that matter most. Just like the burden in the information age on the internet was on the individual, the burden really remains on the individual.” Schwartz applies this mindset to his business-side clients as well, fusing AI with both “Smart Brevity” and “Simplify” approaches to, say, break down research documents for a healthcare company into bullet points so they can get the information faster.
The book also ends with a QR code to help readers use an AI agent to hold themselves accountable to the “Simplify” mantra. But AI doesn’t care.” VandeHei understands that the “Simplify” mindset can’t be applied universally, especially when life throws unexpected challenges in one’s way. But clearing up as much as possible in one’s life frees up more bandwidth toward some of those other tasks, which he says is ultimately the book’s goal.
But the more that you can simplify — the fewer meetings, the less time wasted, the fewer projects that don’t need to be done — that gives you the time to more thoughtfully think about and take action on the things that require depth and complexity.”
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