WhiteLove
3rd May 2015, 14:22
One of Einstein's famous quotes was "Everything Should Be Made as Simple as Possible, But Not Simpler".
I have thought about the meaning of this quote, its relation to Occam's Razor and lately I've been more and more convinced that in practice a different quote might work even better: "Everything Should Not Be Made as Simple as Possible, But Even Simpler", in other words what I'm saying is that over-simplification might actually work better than doing things as simple as possible.
The reason why over-simplification might work very well is because it makes certain outcomes totally impossible, so you win time, money and energy partly from not having to manage those scenarios before you take action and partly because you do not have to deal with the potential negative outcomes that might morph into the result as a result of making the complications possible to happen.
An example of this would be the process of buying a house. In a bidding process that house could end up costly. The most simple strategy here would be to simply just place 1 bid on that house that reflects what you think the house is worth and then stick to that. Although this could work well for you, at the same time you are now actually placing a bid which is already to some degree adjusted to be relative to a price evaluation that exists in a bidding context, because to some degree your bid will reflect how much you want the house relative to what the market expected price increase will be during bidding. Now, an over-simplified strategy would be to not bid at all, this might mean you miss a great opportunity, but on the other hand you now know that when you buy a house you won't be a victim of a poorly placed bid, because since you don't make any bids it's impossible.
Another good thing about over-simplification is that it makes you aware of landscapes that are full of traps and that actually contain no good opportunities at all. Because if you simplify down your options to those that only do not have any possible issues, then if you are left with no options, then that means that whatever option you will now choose among those presented it will enable a new issue to morph into your reality. If you go this route you will automatically not look for and create an opportunity that is what you are looking for, hence what could have turned out great now turns into a compromise caused by a distraction.
The downside of over-simplification can be a slower process forward. Since you limit your options more you have to work harder with creating options that are not instantly available to you and when that fails you can actually end up in a more complicated spot and this might trigger quickly if you have little available time to create those options. Therefore an even better quote might be: "Everything should not be made as simple as possible, but even simpler and when that turns out to be impossible, then make it as simple as possible."
These are some of my thoughts. How are you approaching this?
I have thought about the meaning of this quote, its relation to Occam's Razor and lately I've been more and more convinced that in practice a different quote might work even better: "Everything Should Not Be Made as Simple as Possible, But Even Simpler", in other words what I'm saying is that over-simplification might actually work better than doing things as simple as possible.
The reason why over-simplification might work very well is because it makes certain outcomes totally impossible, so you win time, money and energy partly from not having to manage those scenarios before you take action and partly because you do not have to deal with the potential negative outcomes that might morph into the result as a result of making the complications possible to happen.
An example of this would be the process of buying a house. In a bidding process that house could end up costly. The most simple strategy here would be to simply just place 1 bid on that house that reflects what you think the house is worth and then stick to that. Although this could work well for you, at the same time you are now actually placing a bid which is already to some degree adjusted to be relative to a price evaluation that exists in a bidding context, because to some degree your bid will reflect how much you want the house relative to what the market expected price increase will be during bidding. Now, an over-simplified strategy would be to not bid at all, this might mean you miss a great opportunity, but on the other hand you now know that when you buy a house you won't be a victim of a poorly placed bid, because since you don't make any bids it's impossible.
Another good thing about over-simplification is that it makes you aware of landscapes that are full of traps and that actually contain no good opportunities at all. Because if you simplify down your options to those that only do not have any possible issues, then if you are left with no options, then that means that whatever option you will now choose among those presented it will enable a new issue to morph into your reality. If you go this route you will automatically not look for and create an opportunity that is what you are looking for, hence what could have turned out great now turns into a compromise caused by a distraction.
The downside of over-simplification can be a slower process forward. Since you limit your options more you have to work harder with creating options that are not instantly available to you and when that fails you can actually end up in a more complicated spot and this might trigger quickly if you have little available time to create those options. Therefore an even better quote might be: "Everything should not be made as simple as possible, but even simpler and when that turns out to be impossible, then make it as simple as possible."
These are some of my thoughts. How are you approaching this?