Why the best ideas have something missing

In Pursuit of Elegance was a very interesting book, full of tidbits of information that are perfect to share with others who seek out knowledge and interesting facts. The examples Matthew May uses throughout the work are fascinating, ranging from Jackson Pollock's masterpieces to a crowded intersection with no lights, no lanes, and no accidents. If such knowledge-gathering is your type of thing, I believe this book is worth reading just for that. The actual writing of the book, however, is far from elegant, which is quite ironic all things considered.
May can be quite repetitive at times. In his efforts to stress the importance of elegance, and the mantra of "less is more", he uses far more words than necessary, even when talking about the importance of brevity. He also attempts to connect with the audience by striking a casual tone and delving into his personal life. However, these efforts are irritating, if anything.
His overly-casual, almost joking, phrases are an meager attempt to make the book less journal-y and have greater appeal to a lay audience. But they only serve to provide a contrast to his otherwise scholarly tone, which to me only inserted a bit of unprofessionalism, if anything. Additionally, the anecdotes he brings in from his own life sometimes seem a bit of a strain. Matthew, if your daughter asks for four pieces of french toast, cutting one piece into four isn't an elegant solution, it's a lie.
While giving examples of elegant solutions, he never quite pins down what makes a solution or design elegant, as opposed to simply minimalistic or clever. To give him credit, he does explain that minimalistic and elegant designs are not the same, but a difference between clever and elegant? He doesn't go there at all.
Furthermore, he never quite finishes his argument, in that he stops just short of telling us how we can be more elegant people, or make more elegant decisions, or implement elegance in any form in our lives. He simply leaves us with a vague guide of "think outside the box" and "less is more", and stops at that. He provides us with all of these rich examples of elegance, but never lets us implement it ourselves. He never even lets us know how to learn how to be more elegant. Sure, you can have yourself hooked up to a costly visual brain wave gizmo that he mentions briefly in the last chapter, but that's probably not even available to the general public.
Perhaps it's inability to be explained in full is one of the components of elegance. Perhaps it's continual mystery is, in part, why it's so appealing. But by reading this book it seems like it's something you can't explain fully, and you can't teach at all. In short, read this book for the tidbits of information inside, but not for the writing. And certainly not for an answer on how to come up with any elegant solutions. ( )