On Simplicity

Sometimes, just sometimes, the right answer is the simplest one.

I had two incidents today, both very unrelated.

First, I have been having trouble with my new flat-screen TV since buying it several weeks ago.  The color has been totally off.  The more I adjusted the red and green, brightness, sharpness, tint etc., the worse it got – I could never get it right.  Faces looked either like they were from Wizard of Oz or the outfield grass and infield dirt looked the same color.  It was making me crazy.  Was it Comcast or the TV?  It’s a Samsung so not a cheapee.

I knew to fix it would require a call to the cable company and trying to meet them or getting through to the Samsung help desk, good luck with that.

When I got home, I had the (bright) idea to check the cables in back – if you’ve never looked, now there are five color coded connectors transmitting – well – colors.  After I unplugged and reinserted them, I just happened to notice that one of them was half out of the cable box after being moved into position.

Just enough to work but not to send the right colors.

Ha!  After firming everything up – voila!  Oh wow – this is what HD is supposed to look like.  Happiness.  Simple.

Meanwhile earlier today, I had put together a presentation for a large internal group that included two members of our senior management team.  We are working through a complex partnership with a large customer, to which many people are very passionate about the outcome and we’ve been having discussions for several weeks.

I worked very hard to simplify the situation, the options, and to drive the group to reach a consensus recommendation that would be a win-win-win for us, the customer and our partner.

Like a Rubik’s Cube, the more you turned the analysis in your hands, the simpler the options became.  In the end, like an algebraic equation of variables where you can solve x+y=z knowing x and y, not knowing certain information means it was not solvable in the meeting.  But at least we know that the answers depend on finding the missing variable.

Keeping it simple.

Everyone knows the Meaning of Life right? The answer is always: 42

Meanwhile – to be filed under Rants and Raves, I’ve been trying to solve for moving from WA to CA and getting my car license renewed after expiry, getting insurance and dealing with the DMV.  It is f*&^%$g horrible.  Some is done via phone (no live persons), and via web (endless loop) and in the office (good luck with that – it’s like the waiting room in Beetlejuice.)

So yes, sometimes it is simple, sometimes not.  Simplicity rules more often than not.  The most straightforward answer is usually the right one.  Note to DMV – why so difficult???!!!