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Simplicity

Off i have been reading this book called "Simplicity" by Edward De Bono. Its a fascinating book and is lives true to its title. It is simple to read it. You can start from anywhere. You do not have to go into fine print, as the whole book is printed only on the right hand side pages. The left hand side contains excerpts from the right hand side, in big bold letters. So in reality to get the essence of the book, you really have read up the short excerpts on the left hand side pages of the book and be done with it. Most of the themes have been explained using examples and not complex theory. And the examples are from various professions and walks of life: Teaching, Computers, Machines, Systems, etc. Making it easy for people to relate to the core themes. And to top it all, the whole book is hardly 176 pages long, i.e. only 88 pages to read. :)  But this post is not about a book review. Although the preceding paragraph did just that (it was so simple :) ). No this post relates to a common conclusion that author keeps coming to time and again through out the book. The conclusion he arrives at is that, Simplicity can never be achieved in an absolute sense. In order to make something simple, something else has to be complex and a lot more sophisticated. You can either use 100 simple machines to do a complex thing, in which case simplicity will be involved in the machine's design, but synchronization between the machines will be the complexity bit. Or, you can have one complex machine doing the task, where in, the synchronization will be next to nothing, but the machine itself will be complicated. Thus, simplicity can only be transfered from one frame to the other. To achieve absolute simplicity is a very difficult task, something which might require a lot of time, effort and creativity. Moving on, i thought about this theme and conclusion for a good while and i realised why it is so. The reason why we find simplicity so very difficult to manifest is because of our needs as humans. Now, do not get me wrong. An average human, is simple with simple demands and requirements. That is not the issue. The problem comes when a set of humans come together seeking for a service in a custom made manner which suit their individual requirements and demands. These demands are by themselves are simple, but to provide a single solution which satisfies all such needs is a complex task. It is this diversity in the human race, that impels complex systems and thinking in the 1st place.