the struggle for simplicity

November 26th, 2004

Note: I suppose it's about weekly that I feel I'm on the verge of an epiphany and this week is no exception. Here's some more alleged wisdom coming your way.

It dawned on me just now that what everyone wants is for life to be simple. I think all relationships that fail do so because things became or always were too complicated. And isn't that how it goes, when you meet someone and you hit it off, there is something unique about that situation, you're on the same wavelength, you're getting each other, that's simplicity at play.

But then time passes, new things come up and just maybe do you not always see eye to eye. Behavior is not understood, "I can't believe he did that", things are misinterpreted, signals are misunderstood, it gets too complicated. So you wanna straighten it out, get the cards on the table, map out the problem areas and make sure you get what's at stake. You think once you know what the problems are, you can fix them. Maybe so but sometimes you never get there, things are too complicated to be mapped out. The human mind is very complicated, especially so compared to the mind's comparatively modest ability to process information. Things have to be simple, otherwise the mind does not follow. And if there are too many complications, I just want to cut through it and start over. Sometimes there is no way to "talk it through" and map it out because there was never enough understanding to unite on the differences no matter the effort applied. One gets to a point where no matter what you know the person will never understand what you're saying. And probably vice versa, so what's the point of living like this? It's more harm than good.

Such is life..

Ps. Norway's leading paper (a tabloid) runs a story on how IE is insecure (big news :rolleyes: ). What they neglect to mention is any alternative browser. There is a reference in the article to a past story about computer security, where they among a plethora of references mention Opera (and predictably mention that it's Norwegian). But no mention of the leading browser these days or any mention of Mozilla whatsoever. Yet again, brilliant work, VG.. :wallbang:

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7 Responses to "the struggle for simplicity"

  1. Erik says:

    What puzzles me then is how we sometimes create complex situations ourselves if all we really want is simplicity.

  2. numerodix says:

    Why do we turn a simple situation into something more complex instead of keeping it simple? I think it's because it's not simple enough to satisfy us. Being up against someone, I think rarely do we feel both sides have said everything that could possibly be said and there's no chance of budging an inch. Rather, in most cases, the scene may be set but there's still a thought swivelling on the possibility of change. That is still the lack of simplicity, once every thought like that is gone, people relax and no longer think about changing anything.

  3. Erik says:

    Hmm intersting. I'll come back with a good reply later but for now I'm having breakfast at 7.55 in the morning (total darkness outside) and I have to motivate myself to finish eating and get to work *bleh* :D

  4. numerodix says:

    I got up at 2pm today.. bio clock all f. up again :lazy:

  5. Erik says:

    OK so basically you're saying simplicity is an ideal but also dissatisfying?

    Could it be an ideal we always seek to achieve but it is difficult to do so as in our quest to achieve it we actually complicate matters even further?

    If that doesn't make sense, let me know. I just finished a presentation in powerpoint and you should know how intellectually draining that is :D

  6. numerodix says:

    Well you could say there are two states of simplicity, the good and the bad one. If you don't get along with someone and you've known them long enough to really know them well and you've tried repeatedly to fix it and it never works, you always go back to square one, that's simplicity.

    Of course what you want is the opposite, that effortless understanding, easy going life. So when things are good but not great, you still make an effort to reach that state and you probably rarely succeed because we don't meet people who match us that well very often. So that's complicating things "unnecessarily" but the starting point is still a point were simplicity is lacking, thus the effort.

    So yes, what you said in the second paragraph is exactly right.

  7. Erik says:

    Yeah that makes perfect sense then. In my experience anyway. :lazy: