E. F. Schumacher

The Courage and Genius of Simplicity

Schumacher’s remark begins as a sharp criticism of a familiar human habit: mistaking size, complexity, and force for progress. In many fields, from politics to technology, people often assume that making systems larger o...

Why Expanding Needs Undermines True Wisdom

At first glance, Schumacher’s statement overturns a common modern belief: that progress means wanting more and satisfying more desires. By calling the cultivation and expansion of needs the opposite of wisdom, he suggest...