Can You Do It With One Piece?

Recently my son told me “You can’t do it with one.” I was remembering a visit to the American History Museum more than six months earlier. He was talking about his attempt to attach magnetic objects on a ramp in order to direct a ball into a hole in the hands-on science exhibit.

I was delighted he remembered because at the time I stood there marveling at his minimalist approach.

For over an hour, every other kid immediately proceeded to add as many gadgets as possible to the ramp. More and more and more, without even checking if their system worked.

When my son walked up, he was the only one to remove all the pieces and try with one. Only one. No matter what he did, it didn’t work so he tried two.

When we have a project or assignment, we tend to try to add as much as we can. For instance, if you are designing a website, you might add as many bells and whistles as you can find. If you are planning an event, you might schedule more people, displays, and presentations than you need. The temptation to add every possible feature is especially evident in committees or groups of decision-makers. More must be better.

However, my son is right. You should always start with the bare minimum and see if it works. Then add each additional piece of the plan but only if you can justify additional benefits.

There’s a reason for K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid). Some of us come by this direct no-nonsense philosophy naturally but most of us don’t.

As Albert Einstein is attributed to saying:

Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.

What he really said is slightly more complicated:

It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience.

The message is the same.

When you are working on any project, start from the bottom and only add what is needed.

Can you do it with one piece?

January 5th, 2011 | Tags: , , | Category: All My Writing | One comment

Soccer Win Corrupts The Parents

My son, now nine years old, has been playing in a recreational soccer league for a couple of years. Since we started to play full field with soccer nets, our team has never won a game, although once we had a tie (1-1).

Our boys never game up. They keep coming back together to play. Last fall was pretty bad but they were all on board again this spring.

This week we received the “Good Sportsman” award for last fall’s season. After every game our team was rated and we received the highest score each time. When we were given the news, I think the parents all appreciated it. At least it was something. It’s difficult to see your kids out there losing every week. The kids did keep a good attitude.

One week we played a team with extremely obnoxious parents. They had black uniforms and called themselves “World Domination”. At the time, we didn’t know they had the best record. We held them off from scoring the entire first half but had no subs that week. By the second half our guys were exhausted. They wound up scoring ten points against us and the parents went crazy yelling every time. After six or so, you would think they would tone it down. It’s like rubbing it in our kids’ faces. We didn’t appreciate it. I was going to lead the dads over to “take them on” and several were ready to cross the field. We were only half kidding. We thought they were all jerks.

When our kids finally won a game (6-1) yesterday, we were cheering very loudly. Considering this team beat us last season, we had a major accomplishment. Something finally clicked with the team. Kids were playing different positions and my little guy was a forward. They were doing everything right. I couldn’t believe it! We were cheering loudly. We couldn’t help it. It just slipped out. Then we started to feel bad for the other team. Then we talked about how we were acting that that terrible World Domination team. Then a parent commented that he didn’t care, it felt so good to finally win! He joked that he was willing to give up the good sportsman award.

Who would have thought controlling our happiness would be harder than controlling our disappointment? Being a good sportsman was more difficult as a winner. As parents, we’re having just as much to learn as the kids. Hopefully we’ll have to continue to learn how to be good winners.

April 18th, 2010 | Tags: , , | Category: All My Writing | Leave a comment