Sunday, January 11, 2009

Keep It Simple

Back in high school we had a saying that could save you all sorts of grief; it was “keep it simple stupid” or “kiss” for short. It didn’t seem like an important bit of wisdom at the time, but forty years later I begin to understand just how significant it is. We each waste vast amounts of time looking for complex answers to problems that have a simple answer.

A ping pong ball is in a piece of pipe, how do you get it out if you can’t reach it? You pour water into the pipe and float it out. How do you get a coin off the center of a large rug without stepping on the rug? You rollup the rug until you can reach it. The handle breaks on your microwave oven, fix the handle don’t through out the oven. As a rule of thumb the common sense answer is almost always the simplest answer.

If you try to hard to solve a problem nine times out of ten you will just make things worse. Remember if the TV does not turn on it might just be unplugged. If a vacuum cleaner does not pick up the dirt, either the bag full or the hose is clogged. Always look for the simple answer.

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