keep it simple

i remember in 5th grade, when i was living in st. louis, missouri, my entire class had a week-long camping trip instead of school. all the 5th grade kids from my school district and the ones in the area, i think, but that part's not important. we did fundraisers before hand, learned to square dance (i remember all the boys were really nervous about dancing with girls. eww.) anyways, the time finally came for us to go. we came to school monday morning with our bags all packed up and ready to go.

i think the teachers went through a checklist of required items. sleeping bag, flashlight, and so forth. that took a while, but we finally got onto the buses and went. of course, the buses didn't bring us directly to the cabins we would be staying in, so once we got there, we would have to hike a little bit, carrying all of our things.

me...i took my bag, walked the 1/2 mile, claimed a bunk, and waited while the other kids made 3-4 trips to get all their things from the bus. i probably chuckled to myself watching them. maybe even took a nap, i don't know..i definitely could have.

i don't know if it's a genetic characteristic, but i definitely either learned or inherited this self-containedness from my dad. i remember my first camping trip when i was 12..."keep all your stuff together johnny, or you'll lose it!", he encouraged me. well i didn't want to risk losing anything, and i don't think i did.

in the programming world there is a little saying that goes like so: "keep it simple" (some people add "stupid" on there, but i think that sounds stupid). in programming, you can imagine, keeping things simple makes life a lot easier for any programmer. i think the same concept applies to day-to-day life just as well. keeping things simple makes things easier. why complicate things?

some more examples from my nerdiness

the most beautiful things in life are simple, and elegant. for example, take a look at apple's computers. i haven't met anyone who has ever said "apple makes ugly machines" because face it..they're sexy. but they're also very simple. take another look at google and some of the products they've made. simple. and powerful. and sexy.

these beautifully simple designs and concepts aren't just beautiful and awesome; they make money. a lot of it. google reported revenue of over $5 billion last year for the 3rd quarter. they're doing something right, eh?

and from my other, (not as) nerdy side

an example that i think everyone (well..almost..) can relate to is relationships. why do they have to be so darn complicated? maybe because you're dealing with people and feelings and deep-down emotional things connected to the very soul of each person involved. it's bound to get a little messy down there, but why not try and make it as simple as you can? there's no need to complicate things by being dishonest, hiding things, not being both a) trusting and b) trustworthy and c) expecting the same from your partner, and the list goes on and on and on. lying, cheating, using, etc only make things more complicated and set people up to get hurt and/or actually hurt them.

i've only ever been in one serious relationship that involved a girl, and guess what? honesty, trust, patience, kindness, communication, love, and so on (all those warm fuzzy things) are what you find at the foundation of that relationship. nothing else. it's amazing and simple. i highly recommend it.

on the other hand, i've known people whose girlfriends were constantly checking their instant-messaging history, emails, phone calls, and being very possesive and untrusting. i don't think either of them were very happy in that relationship, because while one side was trustworthy, his girlfriend didn't trust him. we reommended he dump her. i'm not sure if he ever did, but i hope so! nobody should ever be like that! dishonesty and/or distrust ruin things.

that's all i have to say about that.

keep it simple!