How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

by Scott Adams

I have a bias for simplification, but surely there are situations in which optimizing is the better play. So how do you know which approach works best in a given situation? If the situation involves communication with others, simplification is almost always the right answer. If the task is something you can do all by yourself, or with a partner who is on your wavelength, optimizing might be a better path if you can control most variables in the situation. And realistically, sometimes you simply have to get three hours of tasks completed in two hours, so we don’t always have the luxury of being able to choose simple paths. I prefer simplicity whenever I’m choosing a system to use. People can follow simple systems better than complicated ones.