Simple wisdom

Here are couple more learnings from Edward de Bono's "Simplicity":

“There is no natural evolution towards simplicity. In practice things get ever more complex rather than simpler. This happens because additional functions and features are always being added. It is not always feasible to go back and to start from scratch each time a new feature has to be added. This applies particularly in the legal world where a stream of qualifications and amendments is added to the current base. It is not practical to redesign at every step. Even if it were practical there is little motivation to do so.

Some people get so used to the complexity of the existing system that they no longer regard it as complex. So they simply add further bits and pieces in a higgledy-piggledy manner.

It is said, possibly unfairly, that London taxi-cabs have to be high enough to allow passengers to wear top hats, and that they are also required to carry a bundle of hay for the horse. Usually there is no inbuilt mechanism to kill laws when they have outlasted their usefulness. Perhaps every law should be allocated a lifespan at birth.”

and

“Complexity means distracted effort. Simplicity means focused effort.”

This strict argument makes you think:

“Complexity is always failed simplicity.”

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Chapter 4 "Technique" is coming along nicely. Today I broke the 50 thousand drafted word boundary. I'm starting to see it all come together. Slowly but surely like the German squirrel.

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Suomennos: häiriöitä kansainvälisessä kuvayhteydessä. Vasemman kaiuttimen pitäisi nyt näkyä merkonomin tikittäessä oikealta. Tähän päättyy television stereokuvatesti. Hyvää yötä.

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Auf Deutsch: Zeit für Episode 15 von Deadwood, Staffel zwei.