About Start Simple

In a complex world, start simple.

We live in a time of incredible complexity and confusion. Wherever we go, we hear conflicting messages. On diets and drugs, childrearing and education, work and career, relationships, technology, city living -- you name it, on almost everything, we get barraged with contradictory messages every day.

About the Editor  Charles Euchner -- the Sultan of Simple, the Pope of Parsimony, the Emperor of Efficiency -- is the author of numerous books and articles about politics, urban policy, city planning, sports, and other topics. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut, where he teaches writing at Yale University. Euchner's latest books -- both published in 2006 -- explore baseball from its highest to lowest levels. The Last Nine Innings provides a dramatic narrative of the seventh game of the 2001 World Series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the New York Yankees. Little League, Big Dreams looks at the revolution in youth sports through a portrait of the 2005 Little League World Series. Until June 2004, when he stepped down to satisfy the demands of his writing career, Euchner was the executive director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Euchner has written widely on public affairs. His most recent book on politics and policy, coauthored with Stephen McGovern of Haverford College, is Urban Policy Reconsidered: Dialogues the Problems and Prospects of American Cities (2003). (More)

At the center of that confusion is complexity. Just who among us can claim deep knowledge of even a small portion of the decisions we have to make every day? No one I know. And so we get along as best we can, doing what's most pragmatic, remembering old nostrums, playing a game of trial and error with little useful feedback.

It's not just that it's hard to make good decisions. It's also that when we make decisions, we have no real way of figuring out what aspects of the decisions succeeded and failed. And by the time we have to make a similar decision, the circumstances have changed.

Too bad we can't see the effects of our decisions like the viewer of "Sliding Doors." That's the movie, starring Gwyneth Paltrow, that shows two versions of what could have happened if the Paltrow character made or missed her subway connection. In one version, she misses the train and starts walking, only to get in an accident and end up in the hospital, and then come home to a loving mate. In the other version, she catches the train and gets home to find her mate in bed with another woman.

So what can we do to survive this "one great blooming buzzing confusion"? 

Two words: Start simple.

SIMPLE VERSUS SIMPLISTIC

Starting simple does not mean being simplistic. Starting simple does not mean pretending the world is simple or malleable in our hands. Starting simple does not ptovide a panacea for anything.

But when we start simple, we make a conscious and strategic effort to respond to the complex world in ways that make sense. When we start simple, we break down complex issues into manageable pieces, and then figure out what we can do about certain pieces. Rather than getting overwhelmed, we do what we can and let go when we cannot do any more.

Every complex thing in the world -- relationships, careers, skills, medical conditions, psychological states, hobbies and pastimes -- really a collection of simple things. To understand and deal with these problems, we need to start by understanding those simple building blocks.

And then, act.

Even when we break down complex problems into simple(r) pieces, we cannot always produce the results we want. Starting simple is not just a matter of doing what we can do. It is also a matter of understanding that sometimes we cannot do anything.

The serenity prayer, written by the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, expresses this ethic best: "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference."

ANCIENT INSPIRATION

Part of the inspiration for the site comes from inspirational old guys like Archimedes and William of Occam.

Archimedes of Syracuse was a Greek scientists more than two centuries before Christ who is credited with designing a number of machines. His understanding of the lever's powerful properties helped lay the foundation of mechanics.

Words of Wisdom: What great minds say about simple approaches to complex problems

William of Occam was a Franciscan friar in the late 13th century best known for his insistance that the simplest way is usually the best way -- or at least a critical part of finding the right way. Entities should not to be multiplied unnecessarily. Over the years, people have rephrased this statement in a number of different ways. For example: "If you have two theories which both explain the observed facts then you should use the simplest until more evidence comes along." Or: "If you have two likely solutions to a problem, pick the simplest." Or: "Keep things simple."

We are a long way from Archimedes or Occam. We live in a world of complex bureaucracy, contradictory laws, bumbling fixers, self-interested inside dealers, and just plain confused folks.

START SIMPLE

Startsimple.biz offers a vast catalogue of strategies for starting simple on every conceivable issue -- from managing a household to developing a career, from raising a child to participating in community life, from getting and education to teaching others.

The postings on this site are designed to help real people with real problems. Or, rather, the site is designed to help people help themselves.

In addition, the site outlines a larger philosophy of politics and policy that can reach beyond the mindless and ugly red state/blue state, conservative/liberal, pro government/anti-government debates that have poisoned our common life. Here's my bet. If we can figure out how things really work -- without ideological blinders and without rancor -- we can figure out how to make a better world. That won't make it easy. But it can at least remove the biggest barrier -- ourselves.

Rather than do the right thing, all too often reformers add new layers to already complicated systems. We create Rube Goldberg contraptions like the professor's rococo potato-peeling machine -- rather than taking simple measures that get to the heart of the problem.

Start Simple offers a number of simple rules of thought and action:

 

• Look for the leverage point in all    
• Understand the difference between primary and secondary causes.    
• When you need to act, act. Delay causes unnecessary confusion.    
• Do not address problems by simply adding to existing activities.    
• Understand that all actions produce unintended consequences. Try to anticipate those effects before acting.    
• Realize that complex systems change over time.    
• Understand the back-and-forth dynamics of relationships.    
• When building systems, use "modular" systems so that each piece can be updated and fixed without upsetting the wrest of the system.
• Always try to build feedback and effective responses to feedback into systems.

WRITE US

We invite participation by readers. Send an email to startsimplebiz@gmail.com. Comment and cajole, correct and clarify.

Thanks for your attention.