Some things just work. Google is decidedly one of those things.

But did you ever stop to ponder the origins of its lauded minimalism and what we can learn from this?I discovered the secret of the site's sparcity during an enjoyable public presentation from one of the company's affable product managers.

Apparently, when the time came for Google founder Sergey Brin to unveil the brand new search engine to the world, there was a bit of a problem:

Sergey barely knew a lick of HTML.

So he did what he could. A logo, a search box, and two buttons. That was about it. And it worked.

Key takeaways:

1) Sometimes constraints can lead us to tackle issues with amazing efficiency and success.

2) Keeping things simple is smart business.

3) If companies like pets.com had hired (and listened to) folks like Sergey, my damn technology stocks probably wouldn't be in the dumps.

In the meantime, if you haven't already played around with some of Google's lesser-known areas, such as Google News and Google Labs, I urge you to take at least a small break from my SmileZone to do so now.

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