We’ve forgotten the simple stuff
We live in the information age, and in my opinion, it has make our life somewhat more complicated than before. Perhaps it’s due to the unlimited amount of information that we’re exposed to and the countless of options available to us.
Our designers are coming out with more and more complex designs. Our building architects are doing the same. Our consumers demand more and more features in a single product even though they don’t need all of the features. And our doctors are giving us more and more medicines when the simpler approach would be to drink more water and eat more fruits.
Well, in some cases, going the not-so-simple direction does help but most often than not, it just complicate things. Perhaps we are being trained this way, or our environment forces us to become this way. I don’t know. All I know is, we are starting to lose what we always call “common sense”. Ever heard of people saying “common sense is no longer common”? Maybe that has something to do with our way of life which ignores the simple stuff and focus on the not-so-simple stuff.
Heck, some people even come out with many different ways to cut a fruit!!
But people, I guess it’s time to wake up a little and be aware of how simplicity can actually improves our life. There are many problems which don’t require us to think of complicated and complex solution. All they need is one simple solution, that’s all. Not everything is complicated, so don’t assume everything to be complicated. Start thinking the simple way and if cannot be solved, move on to more complicated solution.
Hope it helps.
p/s…… the reason I am writing this post is that, nowadays, i really notice a lot of us tend to think a bit too much on a problem. We would think of sooooo many complicated solutions and yet failed to solve the problem. Why? Because the solution is supposed to be simple and straightforward, but most of us just failed to figure it out.
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I realized this some years ago that people like to make things complicated. So that the problems appear to be very complicated. After that, they solve the complicated problems and take the credits for it. Sometimes they can become hero because of that… What’s wrong with this world?
Maybe because of that, we purposely no longer wants to solve simple tasks even we know that is simple and we wants to show people how good we’re to solve the complicated stuff. People reward that what, so what to do?
ChampDog´s last blog ..Are You Ready in 21st Century? Speak Chinese?
My take: Simple = practical. Practical = common sense. Common sense = taking the least amount of resources to achieve something. That’s why the wealthier one is, the harder it is to practice common sense.
America for instance is one of the planet’s wealthiest societies. It is also its biggest polluter and arguably its most demanding consumer society. The mere cost of a burger set meal’s packaging materials is enough to feed someone in Sudan. The price of a cup of organically grown coffee enough to feed a whole family.
So the loss of “common sense” could be a reflection of wealth that have increased over the decades.
@ChampDog
not a bad tactic to b honest.
mmm i know that for consultants, if you cannot convince someone, you confuse them and make things complicated so that your customers will rely on u for solution. hahaha.
actually i do know of someone who always loves to show people how complicated he can solve a simple problem. :T he ends up wasting too much time….including OUR time.
@Damien Tan
In our world, common sense is no longer that common. Yes, a lot of people are lacking common sense now. What appear to be something obvious, has become something ’strange’, ‘weird’ or ‘abnormal’ for people now….and they would avoid going that direction. Funny huh?
Or perhaps it’s becoming too competitive out there so people always think if it’s THAT simple, anyone would do it. So it must be something very complicated
but yeah…. wealth can be part of the cause too. Coz the wealthy people tend to think too much!
You are right dude …
Just like 9-11 ..it is just a fcking Terror Attack on U.S . Alot of people don’t like Americans . Simple . End of Story .
And i don’t know what the hell happened , from this 9-11 event , people start creating stories and complicate the whole thing until illuminati , chariots of the Gods , conspiracy all come out …
Today , 2009 . It has been 8 years since 2001 . The whole story complicates itself and evolves to SHAPE SHIFTING ALIENS . WAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA.
@gapnap
just like how a funny-looking cloud in the sky ended up as UFO for many people