Simplistic, complex or simple?
Aristotle, Goethe, William of Occam and Einstein all observed that the simplest arguments are the best. Those with the fewest assumptions carry the most weight (William of Occam), those that are short and simple are the mark of the master (Goethe).
Part of this is knowing the difference between simple with simplistic. Most quick solutions rest on assumptions and routine responses but their main characteristic is they haven’t been thought about enough. They are simplistic. How many times have you asked for or been asked for The One Thing To Do to Fix This or heard ‘we just need to …’. In other words ‘What’s the Silver Bullet?’
At this point, a little more thought about any question brings a flood of complication – ‘co-incident factors, my interesting tangents, local mantras, whatabout, whatabout’. This extends the question and the work involved and makes us feel generally tired. Most of us find this unappealing, except those who prefer to complicate things, bamboozle others with ornate constructs, models and the importance of loads of data. That is sometimes because they like it, often because they profit from it.
At this point we have a choice. We can push harder for true simplicity or cut out and dash to an answer. Make the right choice and your extra effort will be rewarded.
Oscar Wilde is credited with ‘I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead’.
Will you write the right short letter or a long letter? Be simple, simplistic or complicated?
True understanding that strips away the noise, asks the right question and makes the answer simple and easy for everyone to understand is the Silver Bullet. Simple.
