20^th century architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is famous for saying, “Less is more.” In the 21^st century most businesses — large and small — seem to think the opposite; more is more rules the day.

Books have more pages than ever before. So do magazines. My wife’s latest copy of Vogue is over 400 pages. There are more TV channel choices and more radio stations. There are more car brands and more car models. More custom-fitted premium blue jeans. And when you get to the internet, there are an infinity of blogs (like this one) and news sites and information feeds and, and, god knows – everything anyone could ever want…

But do people really need more? History books that run more than 800 pages? Come on; is an 800 page book really better than one with 350 pages? 20 CD sets that contain the same information formerly found in four-hours. Even multi-hour special event TV shows are rarely better than their slimmed-down 1 hour sibling.

Among my pet peeves are the products sold by internet information marketers. The operating theory, called “thud factor,” is that you should do whatever you can to make the product seem larger. That includes double spacing, wide margins, printing on one side of the page, including lots and lots of vainglorious interviews, full motion video of things that could be demonstrated with one photograph – the list of bulking-up techniques goes on and on and on and on and on…

Who’s got time to read all of this? Author and marketer Joe Vitale once sold a $125 report that was five pages short. Wow, Joe – what a breath of fresh air. Just the raw facts. Just the information I need and nothing more. (Full disclosure: My company sells instructions on how to systemize and turnkey a business that has only 240 pages — yet each page is so packed with information that people routinely pay almost $5,000 for it.)

And what about all those choices and options?

I don’t think people don’t need them. Exhibit “A” for this argument is the steady increase of attention deficit disorder. Most people who think they have ADD really just have too many things on their minds.

This profusion of variety doesn’t add anything to our lives, but rather it diminishes our effectiveness and our quality of life. Barry Schwartz’s 2005 book, The Paradox of Choice says that all these choices not only make us unhappy, but much further, by forcing us to “invest time, energy, and no small amount of self-doubt, and dread” they actually erode our psychological well-being.

Be unreasonable. Think about how you can simplify and shrink your products and services. Don’t try to overwhelm people and fool them into thinking they are getting value when all they’re really getting is volume. Provide real value instead, and make it concise.

More is not more.