Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Three Questions to Assess Whether You have a “Simplicity” Mind

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."  -Albert Einstein


We live in a complex and complicated world, complexity is somehow necessary because of interconnectivity and interdependence of nature elements and things. However, the complication often means redundancy, duplication, outdated burdens, or generally speaking, unnecessary complexity, it is the opposite of simplicity. Getting to simple is not easy for most people because they often rather follow the outdated traditions and rules. They don't bother to remove the dust around them, or want to question the unknown, or challenge the status quo, out of fear. Which questions shall you ask to assess whether a person has a “simplicity” genius?


Are you passion about simplifying things or often addicted to getting things complicated? Simplicity mind is neither equal to single dimensional thinking nor superficial reasoning. Simplicity is an optimal level of complexity. Very rare case we find people with simple mind, simple thought and who gets on to simplifying everything being passionate for simplicity, be it thought, procedures, systems, life, nature, though we know every intelligence has certain complexity in it, complexity is not equal to complication, complexity is sometimes necessary, but complication can always be optimized.

Do you often appreciate elegance or enjoy flamboyance?  Is 'elegance' such a word to convey “just right” simplicity? Simplicity has always been one of the goals. When you get it "just right" it's called elegant. And the complexity of the solution is simple enough when it only just exceeds the complexity of the problem. Simplicity has a multitude of perspectives.We have all seen tough problems solved elegantly while at the same time admitting that depending on your perspective it may have been very complex for someone to implement. You know an elegant solution when you see it. Elegance is such a word to convey simplicity. And flamboyance is perhaps the word to connect with innate complication in design. There is a relationship between simplicity and clarity. With simplicity, what we are adding is clarity and purpose. Let us decode the complexity, we make our path, life is always good, we make it complex or simple, the sooner we learn the better simple person we will be, we all have power within, to think, learn and expand our knowledge, choice is ours. People complicate the simple things when they don't have the answers. The masters decode complexity and make it simple, elegant, and purposeful.


Do you have abstract thinking ability to simplify things? Simplicity is an aspect of “appropriate” abstraction. Simplicity is a behavioral attitude to see things as and what and where they are and be content and cool as it is. That simplicity is a characteristic of architecture promulgates the view that architecture is a 50,000 ft view when it is quite the opposite. This complex mosaic of the inter-related concepts that make up an environment is far from simple. But such oversight is abstract, so that, even though the interrelationships of all aspects of the enterprise are characterized, the details of the individual pieces are left up to the design and implementation efforts of the subject matter experts in each respective area. Abstract thinking enables an optimized view to perceive “simplicity.”


Unnecessary complexity arises not from nothing. Humans create, though unintentionally in most cases their own problems. Therefore, they have to untie the knots they made themselves, how could you shoot the tangles to see from the different angle, how could you leverage abstract thinking to convey simplicity, creative thinking to discover the alternative way for problem-solving, system thinking to make leverage, and hybrid thinking to strike the right balance between simplicity and complexity. It is perhaps the intellectual curve you need to ride over: from simplicity to complexity and back to the next level of simplicity.

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