Andy's Mind

Simple is beautiful. But simple is also right. Ideas and thoughts worth anything can be expressed clearly and briefly. Complex systems that work are build from simple components according to simple ideas.

Take Internet for example – most of the protocols that make it what it is are beautifully simple, concentrated on their purpose, describable in a new sentences. In fact, it takes no more than 20 minutes to explain to any computer-literatre lay-user all they need to know to understand why the Net works.

Opposite is also true. Complex visions, ideas requiring lengthy, vague explanations are crap more frequently than not.

It also applies to business. Success comes to those focused on a simple goal, not to those who want to catch all the birds at the same time and completely change the face of the planet. Simple ideas, ambitious goals and hard work are the step stones on the path to achievement.

I thank my father for teaching me to be always suspicious of ideas that can’t be told in a few words, brief and simple.

Tonight I realized one thing. To experience something amazing, full of joy and intensity, we have to believe it is so. Otherwise we don’t see it, we are like someone who is colorblind. And something important, maybe the most important of all the things in our life, may just pass us by. And we won’t recognize it was even there.

A flower is beautiful not because it objectively is, it is beautiful because we believe in it. If we didn’t it would be just a reproductive organ of a plant, something commonplace, that will surely wither and die one day. Same object, two ways of experiencing it.

Indeed, reality is not fixed and objective. It’s something our minds cook for us. Skepticism, disbelief, pessimism are conditions of the mind that cause it to experience a limiting, stressing, sadly grey world. There must be some cure for them, I just wish I knew what it is. Because it is so sad to see people I care deeply for suffer from them. And not being able to pull them out.

I was sitting with my colleagues last night, eating a late dinner. For some of us, including me that day, it was the first real, hot meal. The conversation was slow, as usual only briefly touching subjects related to the company. (more…)

A few days ago I wrote about fear. And indeed, fear leads people into choices that lead no one, even themselves, to joy and happiness. It is a limiting factor, forcing to see limits instead of potentials, obstacles instead of paths. But a very similar and equally harmful mental concept is the feeling of guilt. (more…)