After my rant and rave about
simplicity, I have had a few sleepless nights on the matter as is my custom
when something I have said comes back haunting in karma style. I have always
had a great deal of respect for people who practice what they preach and as the
God of Abraham is my witness, I do make a fair attempt of my own. But my
attempt at keeping things simple all the time has not always yielded the
expected results. Do people really want simple? I think the answer is a YES but
must be preceded with a very long …errrrrm trailed by an endless scratch on the
head. Think about it carefully. Have you ever told some one that you didn't like them? You will think that will be considered honest, straight to the point
and most of all; simple. Nop...you get absolutely no applause whatsoever for
that kinds of comment.
No I have not made a turn
around. First of all, it takes complex to (Make that the one thing you must
walk away with from reading this article). What brought the iPad to its
one-button simplicity is nowhere near simple. I mean think about the number of
things that needed to happen for the product to be created. The years of R
& D and the number of people and resources it took. Now although Steve Jobs
himself is a champion of the Keep-it- simple idea, he himself was not among the
simplest persons of his day. His methods from what I hear cannot be described
as people-friendly. In fact an article in a recent offering of the Harvard
Business review warned against replicating his methods. He was not that nice a
guy and that’s the simple fact.
All the simple stuff you enjoy
were made possible by very complex processes. Take a blink of an eye. You have
no idea how many things have to happen for it to occur. When I learnt about the
number of muscles it took to frown, I didn’t have a choice but to smile. A
single step you take is made possible by very complex processes involving
brains cells, bio-chemicals, muscles, bones and countless other entities you haven’t
even heard about. Imagine your every single step is a project from the cells
point of view. Yet you consider it is a simple matter—it is after all just a
step. From all indications, this is the very character of nature itself. It is
how God has created the world. It uses complexity to make things simple. An
orange is a much more complex entity than the simple fruit you see.
So if the blink of an eye is
such a complex event, imagine how complex a person is with his trillions of
cells doing all kinds of things. With the many thoughts and emotions and the
actions that result from the need to stay alive, complex doesn’t even begin to
describe a human being. The more people you have in a setting the more complex
things get. This is what makes socio-emotional competence possibly a harder
subject in practice than rocket science.
I have tried the
keep-things-simple in the social arena. Say when you don’t like something and
tell the truth so you can be free. Go straight to the point and don’t waste
time on useless preliminary. In my hometown, a conversation with elders must
first begin with a five minute introduction and continue with an expedition
into the lives of people who have no interest whatsoever in the conversation at
hand. William James will make a terrible elder in Ada where going straight to
the point is literally a taboo.
I cannot count the number of
times I have sat there screaming in my head “why
don’t you just say what it is you want” in a conversation as my counterpart
continued with a well rehearse dance around the real issue. Of course these
days I don’t let it out because it returns a lot of negatives and I already
have too much of that. Now, I am more
like give him time, he will get there eventually. Often, I have walked away
from conversations without a clear picture of what had gone on-- you are not
allowed too many questions either. I have to allow myself some decrypting time
as it were.
I have come to respect those
police officers who directly ask you for a bribe, they are easy to understand
so you can figure what to do with them. I have had more trouble with those who expect
you to figure things out by yourself. I have come to learn also that people are
very cautious with simple. They find the complexity of pretense more comfortable.
You can’t tell a woman she looks ugly. You can’t tell her, her she needs to
cover some things. You can’t tell women not to come to church in topless
dresses (I don’t know what else to call them).You can’t judge a book by its
cover. You can’t tell a person you are tired of their company and that in fact
you never liked them in the first place. You can’t tell a friend you need some
me time. In effect you are in a system where you are told every day that you
must tell the truth all the time. Yet you are hated for it if you even try.
Ok so maybe I am
overstretching the people side of things. Maintaining relationships is a
complex matter of balancing subterfuge and uprightness. One of the above alone
is not enough or you are bound to become a social misfit. Ironically the lesson
here is simple; there are two sides to the matter, your side and the world’s
side. If you present simple to the world, it will love you for it and you will
make some progress. But for this to happen you need a lot of complex work done
on your side of things. You cannot present simple unless you have done complex.
Simple is only possible because of complex.
In business, it is important to make things easy and simple for the
customer. Those who have succeeded at this can be said to have gone the extra mile. Extra mile might sound
simple in concept but perhaps you now understand why many organizations and individuals
find it an impossibility.
I would like to give you a
simple to-do-list that will make you the best in your field. And believe me I
have tried that like many motivational speakers do. The fact is that this does
not really work or we will all be supermen and women by now. People who
function at a high capacity have a mentality that you can’t just tell people
about. They have to develop this thinking through a series of complex
processes. A person’s life is made up of so many departments and unless each
one functions at appreciable level, the ultimate output will not be the best.
Those who are willing to tackle the complex are able to give simple and will
always be ahead of those who avoid complex. So hopefully you get it; make
things simple by doing the complex work.
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