This document discusses the costs and dangers of complexity. It notes that typical knowledge workers check email and instant messages frequently each day and visit many websites, representing $650 billion in lost productivity. Three-quarters of Americans agree that complexity contributed to the financial crisis. The document promotes the benefits of simplicity and announces an upcoming study called the Simplicity Index 2010 that will quantify how complicated life has become, which brands are helping or hurting simplicity, and the costs of this "simplicity gap." It also notes that life tends to get simpler as people age but more complex if they are wealthy.