Complexity is really pretty simple

“When the solution is simple, God is answering.”
– Albert Einstein –

Thinking about complex things always makes my head hurt. I don’t like that so over the years I created a theory for myself. It may be true; it may not. But it makes thinking about complexity less painful for my head.

It is this: most things are rooted in something quite simple. Complexity is really just what we have layered on to that simple thing, the simple thing essentially acting as a kind of tonic note for the whole. Wikipedia:

“The tonic is the first note of a musical scale in the tonal method of musical composition. The triad formed on the tonic note, the tonic chord, is thus the most significant chord.”

So I look for the tonic note.

Deconstructing

Of course, that’s easier to write than it is to do. But at least, for me, it points me in a direction. It even gives me a kind of strategy. If you tackle something with a kind of reverse engineering approach, you can often find that root.

It also works the other way. When creating something, start with something simple (the tonic note) and then start putting layers on it.

For instance, what is a mobile phone? If you have one and you are getting frustrated with it – “What’s this damn thing do?!” – you can be forgiven. They are filled with so many apps and features they can get pretty puzzling.

You start breaking it down and finally arrive at, “It’s a phone! It’s a telephone! You talk into it and someone answers!” You would be right, in a way, but that’s not really the root of a mobile phone. If that were the case, much of the additional functionality that is puzzling you would be meaningless.

If you think on it longer, you would find it is a communication device. (You figured that out by asking yourself why on earth someone would talk into a mobile phone and why voices made sounds back at you when you did.)

Now that you see it’s a communication device, you start to get a sense for what some of that other stuff is for because you now ask two fundamental questions. First, how do people communicate and, second, what’s the point of communicating?

The first question is answered with aurally (sound) and visually (images). By aural, you understand that we talk to each other. By visual, you understand that we use text and images. (Text is visual – you read based on what you see.) The second question, the why, is answered simply: to give and get information.

Communication is the tonic note. Everything you see on that mobile phone (even the games) is explained with that awareness. You can to it by breaking down the problem of, “What is a mobile phone?” to its most basic part. With that part, you understood the layers of complexity and why they were there.

Constructing

It works the other way too and the best example for me (as a writer) is writing. When I write, particularly when I try to write fiction, I just start and go. Whatever pops into my head goes down on paper (or the screen, to be more accurate). In the end I have a fistful of words, characters, scenes and assorted asides. (It works this way for both fiction and non-fiction.)

During the writing, however, and even more so when I go back over what I’ve written, I see what the writing is really about – I find the tonic note. With that, I go back and I prune, add and knit together the story.

In the end, if I’ve done the work properly, it all coheres. The glue is the tonic note (with writing you would call it the theme). Even the asides are connected to it, in some way. (For example, two parallel storylines that are actually mirrors of each other – maybe one ascending, the other descending in terms of progression.)

It’s a seeming contradiction: the complex is really quite simple and the simple is quite complex.  When you’re deconstructing or constructing (creating), success lies in finding the simple and seeing how it is complex, or can be.

Discovering the simple is, for me, the best way to go about understanding something, solving something and creating something. The way to go about finding the simple is itself simple: ask questions. What? Why? How?

One caution, however: simple is not the same as simplistic. As mentioned, the simple can become incredibly complex. The simplistic can’t. It is always simplistic because it doesn’t involve thinking. It is the opposite of thought. It is always easy and never asks questions and even when it is right it is wrong because it never knows why it is right.

Related:

• The Collapse of Complex Business Models (Clay Shirky)
• “Simple vs. Complex?” No. “Simple, THEN Complex.” (Justin Kownacki)
• What the Dog Saw (Malcolm Gladwell – a collection of articles, many of which touch on this idea. In particular, see Part II: “Open Secrets,” “Million-Dollar Murray,” and “Connecting the Dots.”)

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