Simplicity in the bric-a-brac house

Not exactly true

The cost of simplicity is sometimes not evident. You find yourself weighing options at the point of entry hoping that having others bear the cost would save you lots in the long run.

The lesson, hard as it might be is that one should be ready to face certain costs so as to avoid other incidental and unexpected costs.

It came fully furnished, at least that is what gave it the premium rate and the inventory looked like an easy task of view, count and note.

Things falling apart

Nothing could be further from the truth, first it was the scales that could not be reset to zero; it was broken. Bread out of the bag for toast and the toaster fell apart, the warning being don’t plug this in.

The dawn broke and the thirst for tea had Polly reaching out to put the kettle on, there was no point waiting for Sooty to put it off again, the screws holding the lid were out, the attachment broken and the handle far from handling the jug. Water in this would be the difference between the finesse of elocution and the suddenness of electrocution. Time for replacements.

Up the stairs, three steps in all, a rumpled shirt needed ironing. With the choice of one of four irons, you wondered which one was wired to blow the fuse, but before that, reach out for the ironing table and notice that it is a paraplegic, the legs broken off.

Suction lost

Looking down from that is the vacuum cleaner, parts everywhere and none fitting together, it might have gone to war, lost a limb and an eye, maybe more, but there was nothing to walk with this kit.

Welcome to the house of bric-a-brac, it has everything, yet nothing you can use and that list does not end there, but the quest for simplicity continues.

Their fault will cost you

What about a television? Let’s get one delivered in 1:45 hours, the offer says, and so an order goes in and money goes out. 12 hours later, you learn that you were on the unfortunate side of a computer error or technical problem.

No anger, no frustration, just perplexity as a new time is arranged for the delivery and an email lands in your inbox with all the details, only that it appears you are being changed an extra 60% for a service they did not deliver, in the first place.

The time for a torrent of expletives is nigh and no opprobrium should ensue, but calmly after 8 phone calls all before 10:30AM, everything seems to have been sorted out, or so it seems.

The cost of simplicity is simply the fact that many things are not as simple as they seem at first sight.

Thought Picnic: Simplicity is key

Simplicity is design

Working in Information Technology roles for over 25 years, you come away with a lot of insights and experiences that hopefully forms the body of knowledge that I carry with me anywhere my services are engaged.

What gets to me most about environments that have pre-existing implementations I either need to support or update is the simple things that administrators and architects fail to put in place to make support accessible and easy.

Fundamental design thinking that means you only have to go digging when necessary, I prefer to make process chains as visible as possible, this could be down to simple naming conventions that link different processes together that you easily know what connects to the other thing by simple viewing of an administrative console.

Simplicity in security

One other thing I have learnt working in multinational environments is never to create administrative or common use passwords comprised of keyboard characters that change locations on the keyboard depending on the language.

Then, security, I have tended to call them the security Taliban because they seem to forget that their function is to facilitate access rather than restrict access. Yet, what you encounter in many environments are walls and restrictions that excites the ingenuity of the humanity to find and dig tunnels are circumvent these restrictions.

Simplicity and simple

I always have the mind of always designing in such a way that users do not end up crafting breakouts or hacks to obliterate or replace my design. In essence, whilst this reads like a technical blog, the goal of what I do is to create simplicity from implementation through to ease of use.

I never try to reinvent the wheel, rather, I find ways to get a smooth ride, I’ll work on the road. This is the essence of keeping it simple, using the wealth of experience to take the complicated out of everyday things and finding the simplicity that allows others to carry on from where I left off.

Words describing an interesting week

Complicated, a simple thing made more complex for reasons you are yet to understand.

Clarity, a state of having an understanding about why.

Confidence, a state of being emboldened to do something right.

Confusion, the absence of clarity exacerbating a lack of confidence.

Chaos, when clarity, confidence and confusion are leaning in the opposite direction of everything you want to do, that is really complicated.

Calm, when you walk away.

Character, when you return to bring calm to the confusion and calm by seeking clarity and acting on that understanding with new confidence by simplifying the complicated.

Concise, writing about a long week in retrospect.

Thought Picnic: Those dastardly complicators of the simple

I am not indispensable

In all my working life as a techie of sorts, I have always desired simplicity and ease. The simplicity of getting things done and the ease of seeing those things work along with the simplicity and ease of being able to get others to carry on from where I have left off.

I have never considered myself indispensable and God forbid that I have ever crafted solutions that would make me indispensable. Rather, I have earned the accolade of building things to last.

The reason why those things last is not because what I have done is inscrutable, but because I build in the ability for people to understand what I am trying to achieve and they can see how things work without having to peer into a magical black box of intricate workings that befuddle and bamboozle.

The bastardisation of projects

Sadly, not many in my field see things in this way. Their inclination is to complicate the simple and encipher the legible to the point that if it breaks, it requires just their presence and expertise to resolve.

In my view, it is the misuse of knowledge and genius, it is both narcissistic, uncharitable and utterly selfish, much as it is expensive to maintain as the organisation is somewhat forced to retain you, not so much for your ability but for the fearful risk that without your knowledge this might have a catastrophic outcome.

Manage the seemingly unmanageable talent

In the main, such a situation is avoidable, but it comes down to management, the management of the expertise and the management of expectations with the view of reducing complexity and complicated systems to maintainable processes accessible to other experts without having to climb steep learning curves.

There are sometimes reasons why bespoke solutions are necessary, however that should also be properly documented with flowcharts, workflows and the essential algorithms that would enable another in that field to understand and manage that process in the absence of the architects of that solution.

Simplify the complicated

This also appeals to a broadminded perspective to things, openness and accessibility making the understanding concepts and solutions easy and simple.

I know this is a challenge to some, but it is left to the organisation to decide whether complicating the simple is the way to go or simplifying the complicated is the best way to reduce cost, assure maintainability regardless of personnel and enforce industry standards.

Break free

I have seen too many black arts solutions, works of genius at the very least but at the same time, they are an atrocity of imposing the difficult presaging the unmanageable.

After so much has been invested in this kind of thinking, when the organisation finally gains the courage to break free from the people and this thinking to embrace open, simple, manageable and industry recognised standards, it can only be the best business decision they have made in a long time.

The question is, can they break free?

Thought Picnic: Murdering the wheel

A journey to pain

For we found a road so rough that we thought we would reinvent the wheel to make the ride smoother than it had ever been.

So is the wisdom of they with whom we have to deal and yet the pain that results from our shaken bones, neither the ride nor the journey brings any comfort than a terror for a future we must prevent at all costs.

The horse in gallop was given too great a wallop, it died in stride the rider fallen, broke his neck, but lived to tell a tale never looking like he once looked or anyone looks if they were well.

A journey to gain

A lament, a fidget, a curse, yea, bless the man who sees a rope and hangs himself instead, why bring woe to things so simple because ye knowest not what to do when a rope is given thee?

May the sun set on the day when what is easy is made difficult by the atrocious, the wise in their own ways, but hardly in the ways in the really wise – what a battle to fight, a victory to extract, may peace come to his soul, the writer of these words and his anger be quelled by reason appealing to those who can see reason and will be persuaded by the reasonable.

It hurts, it pains, it bleeds, the wheel is strong, the work must be on the road. Be gone, ye workers of iniquitous scripts, be gone. Let us rescue the wheel from vandals of true progress who complicate things to assure their indispensability and their selfish places.