Lots of brilliant concepts are simple.

DNA - the double helix - the 2 strands spiraling round and round each other. Very simple. It took 3 very brilliant people 10 years to figure it out. Crick and Watson and Rosalind Franklin (who died of cancer before the end, and so missed out on the fame and recognition). In the end, one - Crick? Watson? - had a dream of a snake biting its tale. Everything fell into place. Very simple. Not keep it stupid simple. Keep it smart.

More. Einstein. Almost everyone knows that e=mc2, or spoken, E equals M C squared. We may not know what it means, but it's certainly simple.

Then Copernicus and Galileo. They simplified things - their conclusion, that the earth and other planets revolved around the sun, not that everything in the universe revolved around the earth, made things so much simpler than the massively complex formulas that were needed to show how things worked the other way around, with each planet doing its own complex spiraling around earth. Whew! Simplicity.

Freud, with his ego, id and superego - eye on the world, inner drives, and shoulds - came up with, fundamentally, a very simple system.

Ideas - each idea makes things simpler. It takes lots of complex individual information - about things with more or less a certain shape, dimension, and so on - and the idea is something that brings it together: aha, door! All those things are doors!

That is, at its best, the KISS system, KISS principle: keep it simple, stupid. In other words, lots of times complexity means we haven't muddled our way to the simple underlying reality.

****

But there's something many people do: keep it stupid and simple. They act on the Keep It Stupid Simple Impulse.

Crick and Watson and Rosalind Russell spent a decade struggling to figure out something that ended up simple. They had to look at masses of complex data. They didn't throw it out and give up. The simplicity of the final understanding came from being willing to deal with complexity, muddle, confusion, not knowing. Arggghhhhh!

Likewise Copernicus and Galileo, wide apart, dealt with their similar and confusing findings. They started with one simple understanding - handed to them - of the way the universe worked: earth at the center. Through observation (helped by that amazing invention, the telescope), they created more and more information, making the confusion and complexity and muddle ever larger. And then, aha! - the brilliant simplicity.

Much more common: I know what I think (without any evidence of thanking). That's the way it is (without deep exploration). The earth is flat.

That's keep it stupid simple.

****

Why?

Some people are afraid. Deep down there may lurk terror of hell, let's say if they should dare to question traditional religous beliefs. Then, many people have masses of anger inside. It's nice to be able to discharge anger at someone seen as an enemy. There is often rage, too, at challenge. How dare you suggest! Terror and rage often lurk together, not far from the surface.

Galileo and Copernicus both came up against the deep dark lurking rage-terror monster. Recant or else, was the verdict from the church leaders.

Crick and Watson, at a time when the hunt was on to understand the structure of DNA, received applause and prizes.

For whatever reason, many people live by the worst variant of the KISS system, KISS principle: Keep it stupid and simple. Brook no challenge. Fresh air, fresh ideas forbidden.

Ruts in the brain - hard to think outside well worn paths.

****

The Keep It Stupid Simple Impulse. I've found this - though of course it's never called that - when I've tried to get people to think very simple things that are off their beaten path.

In the West, the beaten path often includes:

all opinions are equal,
who are we to judge,
all cultures are equal,
all religions are equal,
everyone is where they are meant to be,
everything happens for a reason.

The KISS system as it was meant to be: keep it simple, stupid. Keep it simple - that does not mean, deny reality, ignore facts, don't think.

But here, if one challenges one of the beliefs littering the beaten path, most often one comes up against an inner wall of not thinking - thicker, higher, more solid than a cement bunker, in many cases.

Of course all opinions are equal, of course the earth goes around the sun, of course everyone is where they are meant to be, of course ...

This is the Keep It Stupid Simple Impulse in action: keep the mind shut, allow no questions, discount any evidence, sneer, go into shock, skip anything to do with thinking and logic.

****

Whenever there is a taboo against exploring, there is sure to be the Keep It Stupid Simple Impulse at work.

"Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive." It think that's Shakespeare. Stupid simple is when things are locked up: there's a mess to be sorted through - if it's around rape or religion, sex or equality.

Smart simple is the outcome: the simplicity of clarity, the simplicity of understanding.

Keep it simple stupid is the opposite.

****

In my experience, most people have learned to avoid that middle territory - good thinking, sorting things through, critical thinking, figuring out what makes sense. Easier to slam the door shut with a quick pat answer - keep it stupid simple.

We have to be able to tolerate confusion, lack of clarity, uncertainty to get to good simple.

signed,

Elsa
September 29, 2009

copyright © Elsa Schieder 2009, 2011 - all rights reserved

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KEEP IT STUPID SIMPLE.
KEEP THINGS AS IS - NO THINKING, NO CONFUSION
THIS IS NOT KEEP IT SMART
KISS SYSTEM, KISS PRINCIPLE: KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID.
IN OTHER WORDS, GET RID OF COMPLEXITY THAT ISN'T NEEDED.
VERY DIFFERENT

Keep It Stupid Simple: The Earth Is Flat. No Thinking.
KISS System, KISS Principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid.
Einstein. Good Thinking.

The Idea Emporium ... and Keep It Stupid Simple

Keep it stupid simple - on of those seeming short cuts that actually stops us from getting anywhere. The end - something brilliant, like Einstein's brilliant formulation. But without exploration we stay at insisting everything goes around the earth. That's keep it stupid simple.

KEEP IT STUPID SIMPLE

EASY
BUT FAR FROM
KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID
AND MILES FROM
KEEP IT SMART,
GET IT RIGHT

Elsa
Sept 29, 2009

copyright © Elsa Schieder 2009, 2011 - all rights reserved

Keep It Stupid Simple: The Earth Is Flat. No Thinking.
KISS System, KISS Principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid.
Einstein. Good Thinking.

KEEP IT STUPID SIMPLE:
THAT'S THE WAY IT IS.
EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT.
WHO ARE YOU TO RAISE SUCH QUESTIONS.
THAT'S KEEP IT STUPID SIMPLE.

THE IDEA EMPORIUM
A CELEBRATION OF GOOD THINKING

 

"It is a fact readily acknowledged,
that for humans,
an idea is much more powerful
than a fact."

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