Keep It Simple, Stupid

The Rube Goldberg-ing of Society

I was scrolling Instagram mindlessly, as one tends to do, when I came across a post showing another “life hack” — a term I can't fucking stand, but I digress. A woman demonstrated a “convenient” and “easy” way to apply perfume. Apparently, boiling two miniature tubs of Vaseline until they are liquid, spraying perfume into the liquefied petroleum jelly, then pouring the mixture into an empty deodorant stick, placing it into the freezer for one hour and slathering yourself with inevitably weird smelling goop is preferable to spritzing yourself with the provided delivery system that all fragrances come with.

As Rich Cooper once said, “Men love complicating their lives, then justifying why”. Not to be this guy, but this is not sex specific. This is incredibly common; so much so that it has a term in psychology— Complexity Bias.

Humans tend to give more weight to complex things even when the solution/explanation is far simpler. For example: a person who feels tired all the time will book a doctor's appointment to get their iron and hormone levels checked, completely glazing over the fact that they drink two glasses of wine before bed and get five hours of interrupted sleep per night.

Why do we over-complicate things?

There are a few reasons, outside of the inherent Complexity Bias we all suffer from to one degree or another. Confirmation bias is one and the desire to appear smarter or more sophisticated is another. At the heart of it, however, is validation seeking behavior. A deep need to prove your worth to another. For men, this is incredibly unattractive. For women, this can make working in a team (especially that of a romantic relationship) a frustrating endeavor for the other person or people involved.

The Rube Goldberg-ing of Society

I have long held the belief that social media and the internet hasn't made people dumber, but has allowed stupidity to thrive. Before the days of global connectivity, stupidity was buffered by the community you were forced into. You did or said something retarded, your social circle would curb that behavior. Now you can find your tribe online to create an echo chamber of retardation never seen before in history. Flat Earthers are a prime example of this. They did not exist in any notable fashion until the scattered morons across the globe were able to Voltron themselves together thanks to the interwebs.

I am thankful for my age and experience. Being able to have a grandfather who would glare at me in disgust and ask, “what the fuck are you doing” before showing me a far more efficient and simpler way of accomplishing a task. A skill that had been developed through the generations and was refined.

By and large, a lot of this has been lost. The younger generation is the most egregious, having the belief that they were the first to discover everything. There seems to be a disconnect. Perhaps it is the result of being raised online. I'm not sure and it really doesn't matter. It just is and it is increasingly problematic.

What Do?

First off, check your ego and validation seeking at the door. Humans have been around long enough that most issues that arise from the human condition have been discussed and picked apart ad nauseam. The game has not changed, it just has had a couple of updates.

I am not exception. Nothing I have written is groundbreaking or new. It may be framed differently or have slightly moved the needle, but it certainly not new. Chances are, neither are your half baked ideas and strategies. Your ego may not care about convergent evidence, but people, institutions, problem etc. don't give a shit about your ego. Most issues can be sorted out if you learn to tell your ego to fuck off.

As Rian Stone has said so many times I've lost count, “do you want to be right or do you want to be happy”?

Secondly, don't let yourself and others complicate things. Prioritize and streamline as much as possible; apply Occam's Razor and learn to acknowledge when you are in the weeds unnecessarily. Determine what an acceptable casualty rate is for your goals and move forward.

Women are superb at complicating things. I would argue that is because of their communal nature where the only acceptable casualties are no casualties. They will use their emotional verbal witchcraft to sway you, but understand there are no perfect solutions, only trade-offs. Pick your poison and move forward.

Finally, have a solid core of friends and stop seeking confirmation bias online. A good circle will check your ass; a shit one will stay silent for fear of hurting your feelings. Generally speaking, men will encourage one another to do dumb shit, but check each other when it matters. Having boys in your corner to tell you honestly that you're sticking your dick in a basket case is invaluable. Solid friends will have your back against all threats, including your own stupidity.

You only have so much physical, mental and emotional capacity; spend it wisely.