Least Effort Principle: You Will Do The Easy Thing First

The least effort principle is a broad, cross-disciplinary theory that covers diverse fields from evolutionary biology to web page design. It postulates that animals, people, and well-designed machines will naturally choose the path of least resistance. This is manifest in information-seeking behavior: we are likely to search for evidence using the most convenient method available and stop as soon as minimally acceptable results are found. Also, this takes into account our information-seeking experience. We will use tools that we are most familiar with and can easily employ.

The principle was first studied by linguist George Kingsley Zipf. Zipf theorized that the distribution and use of words in language was due to the inclination to communicate efficiently with the least effort, what is now known as Zipf’s law. This principle is of concern when designing anything where the user has to find information, navigate, or exert mental and/or physical effort. The idea remains regardless of the application: when faced with multiple options to achieve a goal, individuals, teams, and systems will choose the one that requires the least amount of energy, effort, or resources.

The core mechanism behind the least effort principle is energy conservation. Evolution wired humans and other organisms to conserve energy to prolong survival. Tasks which require less effort are preferred since they allow energy to be saved for critical tasks of reproduction, survival, or emergencies. Since mental effort is taxing as well, the brain opts for shortcuts and pre-learned routines. Heuristics and habits. This minimizes cognitive load and speeds up decision-making. Systems, natural or artificial, seek efficiency inherently. Processes that use fewer resources dominate over time because they are more sustainable. And once a path of least resistance is chosen and proves successful, it is reinforced, making it the default option.

It can be used as a lens to analyze behavior, systems, and decision-making processes. The least effort principle allows us to design solutions, workflows, and environments which align with natural tendencies. It manifests through forming easier variations of habits, such as reaching for the smartphone instead of a book, because it requires less mental effort. The principle seeps into decision-making as our brain starts to rely on shortcuts and rule-of-thumb thinking, hence we choose familiar brands since researching alternatives is harder. Folks stick to routines, even inefficient ones, only because changing them feels like more effort than maintaining the status quo. Even movement and language follows the path of least resistance, like taking the elevator instead of the stairs and simplifying language and abbreviating phrases to reduce effort in communication.

Real life manifestations of the least effort principle:

• Behavioral design: by designing environments that fit with the principle, desired behaviors can be encouraged, such as placing healthy food at eye level in supermarkets and leveraging default options like pre-enrolled retirement plans and automatic savings;

• Education: students gravitate toward simplified study techniques or summaries over deep learning, and educators can create low-barrier methods to foster engagement to tap into this tendency;

• Technology: apps and platforms that are intuitive and require minimal user effort to navigate dominate the market, such as Amazon’s one-click purchases and swipe gestures on dating apps;

• Marketing: brands simplify purchasing decisions by reducing friction, such as offering free shipping, subscription services, and personalized recommendations;

• Health: people choose minimal-effort workouts and quick-fix solutions over long-term fitness initiatives, and designers of programs could harness this by offering easy entry points, like five-minute workouts to spur momentum;

• Energy: in urban planning, pedestrian pathways and traffic flows are optimized by analyzing how people naturally choose the shortest or easiest routes.

How you might use the least effort principle as a thinking tool: (1) leverage it for efficiency, using it to streamline your processes and reduce unnecessary effort, automate repetitive tasks to free up energy for complex problems, and design nudges by aligning your environment with your desired actions; (2) recognize its limitations, as the principle can easily lead to suboptimal choices, such as procrastination and avoidance of meaningful challenges, and awareness of when you are defaulting to the easiest option can stymie this process; (3) counteract when needed, deliberately seeking out difficult paths in learning or skill-building, opting for activities that push you out of your comfort zone to grow; (4) create barriers to negative behaviors, using effort as a deterrent, like by placing junk food in hard-to-reach locations or hiding the television in the closet; (5) build good habits with low effort, starting small and easy, like a five-minute fitness routine or micro-learning complex topics by breaking them into bite-sized pieces.

Thought-provoking insights. “The path of least resistance leads to crooked rivers and crooked men.” highlights the potential downsides of always choosing the easiest path—it results in inefficiency and/or mental compromise. “Work smarter, not harder.” emphasizes the importance of leveraging the least effort principle for efficiency. Newton’s first law of motion, stating that objects in motion stay in motion unless acted upon, metaphorically reflects the inertia of human behavior driven by least effort. The myth of Sisyphus, doomed to roll a boulder uphill repeatedly, is like an antithesis to the least effort principle. While this lens calls for optimizing processes and reducing friction, it also acts as a reminder of its limitations. Balance natural tendencies with deliberate hardship. Do hard things. When its beneficial.