Simplicity Wins

"Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify, simplify! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail.” The Notorious HDT

Ok, so Henry David Thoreau is maybe not the most notorious person. And he may be most well-known for going and living by himself in the woods for some amount of time I don’t care to look up. But Walden is one of my favorite books. And this quote on simplicity is wise yet often ignored.

But I was reminded of it last night. I was at a neighbor’s house who hosts a game of Bocce for him and his old man friend-all in their 70’s, in case you were trying to define “old.”. I had met him at a neighborhood block party, and he was kind enough to invite me and the young guns of the neighborhood-all in our 30’s, in case you were trying to define “young guns”. He had built a Bocce court in his backyard, which is convenient for hosting a bocce night.

Last night was the 2nd time I attended, and it was almost 3 hours of uninterrupted, ball rolling fun. In case you have never heard of Bocce, it is a simple game where a Pallino ball is rolled, and two teams go back and forth trying to roll their red or green balls as close to it as possible. There are a total of 9 balls, counting the Pallino.Three colors. And each game was to a score of 11.

And it lasted 3 hours.

Now, it wasn’t because these old dudes were moving slow, it was just the pace of the games to get to a couple of best of 3 wins. But it was a lovely evening outside under the stars, without my phone, and listening to the conversations I’ll be having in 40 years when I’m in my 70’s.

It is such a simple game, but not easy, especially for a newbie like me. But it kept our attention, was fun, and it was clear a bond had formed between the old guys playing this for years. And it reminded me of how simplicity wins. I inhabit a world of complexity in my job in healthcare, attempting to market myself on the wild algorithms of social media, and navigate the complexities of fatherhood. The conventional way of thinking would just be to try and reign in all of this entropy and chaos.

But simplicity wins.

-The aforementioned simple game of Bocce

-A simple financial plan of index fund investing and not overspending

-Pushups, pullups, squats can get you 80% of the way to a stronger body

We recently bought a new dryer. Trying to find a new one was rife with complexity. Did we want a “smart” dryer that synced with our phone? Hell no! Our last dryer was a machine that broke. Why add a computer (another complex machine) on top of a mechanical machine that could break. That’s twice as much crap that could go wrong, and just another thing we have to learn to use. No thanks. We got an analog dryer…that dries our clothes. What a concept.

Simplicity wins.

With kids there is a desire (probably from marketing) to buy cool toys with many parts, pieces, and directions. But they always go back to Legos, digging in the dirt, and simple games of catch with a ball. For goodness sake, my son played with a cardboard box for an hour the other day, turning it into an airplane, while the train set he got for Christmas sat idle, with its many parts collecting dust.

Simplicity wins.

So, take a lesson from my elders, and the notorious HDT. Eschew the societal message of complexity. Fight for simplicity.

And you too can listen to Jonathan, the Santa Clause lookalike, talk about his favorite strains for weed while he bests you again on the bocce court.

?

?