“Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise to complex and intelligent behavior. Complex rules and regulations give rise to simple and stupid behavior.”
This quote is one of Dee Hock’s most referenced quotations, sometimes referred to as the “Hock Principle”. The quote has been referenced in over 50 books, including books like Getting Things Done by David Allen and the Agile Management textbook, and appears in more than 5000 website pages online, including Forbes magazine.
Attribution of the Quote
The quote has been variously attributed to a number of places, but unfortunately all are incorrect. The most common references are:
- The Chaordic Organisation, 1999
- The Fast Company Article Supplement, 1996
- The Lesson of the One Horned Cow, 1994
The quote does not appear verbatim in any of the above publications.
Why is The Chaordic Organization (1999) Referenced?
Dee Hock’s most famous book published in 1999 is likely referenced as it is his most famous work. Most people might assume that such a famous quote is likely to appear there, even if it was rehashed from an older publication. There is also a possibility that there was a version of that publication that included the quote, but I have not been able to find that if it is the case.
Why is The Fast Company Article Supplement (1996) Referenced?
Before the publication of his book, the Fast Company profile was probably the best known piece of work about Dee. You can still find the original article online here.
The earliest online published reference to Dee Hock saying this quote was in August 1998 in a publication by Cutter in August 1998, Volume X, No. 8. called “Application Development Strategies ” in an essay (not written by himself) called “Managing Software Complexity – Whither Software Process Management” which Cutter kindly has made public on request.
The reference includes the word ‘supplement’ which is unclear. There were two additional pieces of writing included by the side of the article which Dee wrote himself, which can be found here and here. Neither contain that quote. There may have been an additional physical supplement inserted into the magazine, but I have been unable to confirm that an additional supplement existed with the customer team at Fast Company, neither is it referenced in the article or in the rest of the magazine. The online version is nearly identical to the physically published version, and the quote appears in neither of them. I imagine that this was referenced for a similar reason to his book, it is simply a well known publication in the right approximate time.
Why is the The Lesson of the One Horned Cow referenced?
The Lesson of the One Horned Cow was a talk that Dee gave on July 17th 1994 to the Graduate School of Bankcard Management Norman, Oklahoma.
You can download a version of that talk that was (for some reason) published in a publication called” Biodynamics”, a farming and gardening publication in the November/December 1997 issue.
A number of publications attribute the quote to 1994, with a few of them actually referencing the talk with the title “The Lesson of the One Horned Cow”. In “A New Way to Pay” the reference is simply “The One-Horned Cow” but references the same graduate school and date. This suggests that some early references are from the actual talk that was given, not the print of the talk that was published a few years later.
Why is it called the Hock Principle?
The labeling of this quote as the “Hock Principle” seems to have happened as recently as May 2020, where David Perell labeled it as that here and it has come to be referenced by that name in many publications including books and online articles.
That seems as good a name as any, but it should be noted that Dee Hock never himself acknowledged that name.
How to reference this quote?
Dee almost certainly did say this quote. In the 1990s, Dee was working on the ideas around chaordic organisation, leadership and management. The “One Horned Cow” was the earliest publication of his ideas, but they would be revisited – sometimes in almost verbatim terms – in both The Fast Company article, his 1999 book and an article he published on leadership in 2000.
The sentiment in the quote contains a number of his major themes, and indeed words like ‘purpose’ and ‘principles’ are words he utilizes more than any other in his book – including a chapter labeled “”. The theme of creating a simple set of principles which a great number of people can use to create extremely complex behavior is probably one of the core tenants of his philosophy of management.
After detailed investigation I would conclude that Dee said this quote verbatim in 1994 in the talk previously mentioned to the management school either as part of the main talk or a Q&A session – but it was recorded independently of the later publication of that work. I would suggest the following reference is best:
Dee W. Hock, 1994. For a detailed discussion on the origin of this quote, see deewhock.com/quotes/thehockprinciple.
Am I wrong?
I’d love to hear about it – you can send me an email and I will update this page if it comes to light.