You know the sort of advice that has everyone nodding in acceptance when it is handed out? That, generally, is precisely the sort of advice that people find nearly impossible to follow. Or so it has seemed to me always. The more people agree with the advice, the less they actually live by it.
A recent incident brought home to me the fact that nobody really 'keeps it simple' though everyone is all for it.
The doorbell rang and I wheezed my way down a couple of floors, not looking forward to climbing back up, to see a couple of youngsters who had come to take a look at the ground floor flat which was available for renting. Not that they needed the keys from me or anything, the property agents had that in hand but...
"Uncle! Is there a gen-set here to use when there is a power-cut?"
"No," I said and that was that.
Except that, as I came to know later, that what they really wanted to do was check out the electrical fittings and, in the absence of power supply, they were unable to. If they had only told me THAT, I would have told them to switch on the mains, right behind where they had stood while talking to me, and try again.
And that is how not keeping it simple mucks things up for you. I mean, so you did not find power supply in the house, you drag me down two floors anyway, while in the meantime thinking, "No power supply, so the only way we can check things out is if there is a gen-set here and ask the upstairs guy to switch it on." And me, I get asked if there is a gen-set, assume that they are checking out whether there IS one, and say, "No!" If they had only told me WHY they were there and asked me if there was a power-cut...But then, that would have been too simple, wouldn't it?
No point blaming the guys really. I mean, getting too complex for our own good is sort of wired into the human nature. We called ourselves 'Sapiens', meaning 'wise' apparently, and then spend our lives in trying to act up to that name, making fools of ourselves.
I mean, like, if you wish someone 'Good morning' and he seems not to notice, what do you do when you talk to him later? Do you say, "I wished you in the morning. Did you not notice me?" OR do you say, "Oh! You are now a big-shot. You hardly notice little people like me." Instead of keeping it simple and asking about the incident, if you will draw conclusions from it and then question about the conclusions...
The more I see of people, the more I find that people have a habit of reacting to what they concluded themselves from what you have said, rather than what you actually did say. Like, if you are in a discussion and say, "But, will we make a profit if we sell at that price?" you end up getting a "You finance guys always think that we marketing guys are out to destroy the company."
The train of thought there would be something like, "NOW this guy will try to prove that our proposal will cause a loss to the company and shoot it down. Like these finance guys always do." and Voila! Keeping it simple by just answering that question or asking, "Why do you think it will not be profitable?"...Nonsense! What do we have brains for if we kept it THAT simple. We are shrewd operators who can read between the lines...So much so we, most of the time, skip what is IN the lines entirely.
In every walk of life, in every relationship, in almost every meaningful communication, humanity shows the extra-ordinary ability to refuse to keep it simple.
And nods and smiles in approbation whenever anyone tells them the mantra, "Keep It Simple, Stupid". While being totally convinced that it is only the stupid who keep it simple!
