Under the hood, I know about a lot of complex things. I know the complexities about technology, software, business systems and even people.
However, what does that knowledge get me if I spew such complexity out into the world? Some may see such knowledge sharing as a sort of sophistication. However, I loathe it. I would rather break down problems, systems and even communications into something simple.
As Leonardo da Vinci said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
When you see something with elegance, clean lines and powerful impact without complexity you are experiencing a master. Better yet, it is a form of mastery. Someone did the hard work of distilling the complexity down to a useful, meaningful and easy way to do something. That takes a lot of thought and care for others.
There’s a lot of pseudo experts out there. They throw around complexity as their ruse for establishing their expertise. Run the other way.
Look for the person who simplifies and shows their knowledge by making the complex simple. It’s not necessarily the level of complexity inherent in a problem. It is much more about talent and how to attack the ambiguity.
A person who has thought something through and knows what they are talking about can break something down to its core elements without the drag associated with all the nuances, though they understand the variables thoroughly. They can just distinguish and present the signal from the noise.
This is becoming increasingly important in our world today. There is this illusion that everyone has power because they can access so much information readily.
However, it still does not eliminate where the value truly lies. You and I could be looking at the same universe of information. But we see different possibilities and application.
Yes, the information has been democratized, but the talent to simplify the complex and make solutions that work will always be the challenge that experts fill and amateurs muddy the waters with.