Tag: complexity

• Truth And Understanding

  You cannot possibly understand everything that comes to pass in this beautiful and tragic life.

  There is simply too much complexity to it all.

  Assuming you know what is happening and why will lead to all sorts of absurd conclusions and decisions.

  Of course, you need some level of certainty in your life just to function.

  You need to know that there is some truth that is constant and reliable.

  But even if you are right about certain things, it does not mean that you understand the how and why of what is happening at the deepest levels of truth.

  The truth is far too complex and multidimensional.

  The more confident you are in your understanding of the truth, the more of the truth you shut yourself off to because the truth is far greater than your understanding can grasp.

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  October 12, 2023

  complexity, truth, understanding

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• More Complex

  Life is rarely as simple as a list of pros and cons can convey.

  Life is far more complex than that.

  We are far more complex than that.

  Our hopes, fears, needs, passions, and desires cannot possibly be summed up in a simple checklist or analyzed on a spreadsheet.

  We contain multitudes, paradoxes, and contradictions that pure data cannot capture.

  By Robert Van Valkenburgh

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  February 11, 2023

  complexity, contradictions, desires, fears, hopes, multitudes, paradoxes, passions

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• Complexity Does Not Equate To Quality

  “There is always a market for the highest quality.”

  —Tim Ferriss

  

  Complexity is a means of hiding poor quality, not improving it. It is better to start with fewer, higher quality ingredients, to intentionally limit yourself, and to highlight those ingredients than it is to start with a larger quantity of low quality ingredients and to try to make up for low quality with variety and complexity. Low quality does not become high quality simply by having more of it.

  Starting with a limited number of high quality ingredients does not guarantee success, however. Simplicity is unforgiving. It gives us nowhere to hide. Simplicity requires us to be humble, to let the ingredients shine. If we have a few, high quality ingredients, the goal is to enhance their positive attributes, to draw them out, not to mask them.

  Adding unnecessary complexity to a dish will only diminish the overall quality of the final product. Complexity does not improve quality. It mutes it. More is not better. Better is better.

  “As in life, so too it is in budo. As in budo, so too it is in life.”

  -Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Body and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

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  July 19, 2019

  complexity, essentialism, food, quality, quality ingredients, quality over quanitity, quantity, simplicity

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