NamedPipe

Before I left work to run my first 100K last weekend a work colleague wondered how it would compare to work. I answered, “Simpler, I’m sure.”

I’m surprised at how accurate my guess was. But in one way I was wrong: it was way harder than anything I’ve done before.

After running for 62 miles I now want to do more hard, simple things. I want to stay away from the easy, complex things that dominate most of our lives. Running for that long (17 hours and 35 minutes) is not easy. Avoiding rocks while running at 10 P.M. with only a headlamp is hard. But it’s wonderfully simple. It’s just you and the trail all day long.

Doing hard things requires effort (either mental, emotional or physical) and time. Hard things strain you. They cause injuries. They hurt you. Make you cry. Make you want to give up. But they are ultimately rewarding.

Chopping wood is hard. It takes an axe, some upper body muscle, aim and a desire to keep whacking away at wood knowing you’ll use it for fuel all winter long.

Adding up a bunch of big numbers can be hard. But it’s definitely not complex. Just write them down and start adding — truly a simple exercise. My son does this sort of thing for fun.

But too much of what we do today complex. Complex things are made of many independent but interrelated or interconnected parts. Most work done today by knowledge workers is complex: you have many different computer systems, different organizations in your company, different people with different competing goals — all acting independently but all connected.

All of these independent but coupled entities make basic tasks complex. But it’s rarely hard. Complex things make you frustrated.

Let’s say you want to change the way your organization handles incoming phone calls from customers. Talk to your boss and convince him or her to support your idea — a simple task. Then convince others that they should change their behavior in response to the idea you want to implement. Another simple task. Now make sure that any new employee is up to speed on how the new system will work; develop some training materials. Not very hard to do. But with all the different people and parts of the organization the task is very complex. Any one step can derail the whole idea. All the pieces are simple but the whole is complex and can be frustrating in the end.

Even the most mundane tasks can become crazy because of complexity: meeting someone for lunch.

“Text me when you are ready for lunch.”

“Ok, where should be we go to eat?”

“Not sure, let’s wait until lunch.”

“Ok, I’m free for lunch now.”

“Where to?”

“Don’t know. How about this place or that place or another place?”

“I don’t like this place. I can do that place, but it’s usually crowded now.”

“Ok, let’s do another place then.”

“Shit, I don’t know where that is. Let me look it up.”

“Ok”

“Alright, it’ll take me 20 minutes to get there.”

“Fine, but then I only have 15 minutes for lunch.”

“Never mind, we can do lunch some other time.”

Texting, mobile phones, instant communication and the constant interconnectedness we have today makes everything complex. Even when it’s a simple task, complexity makes it tough to accomplish.

So, do more simple, hard things.

• Wash the dishes by hand.
• Walk places.
• Ride your bike to the store.
• Make appointments and stick to them.
• Read to your kids.
• Play the guitar with no effects pedals.
• Cook your own food.

All this is harder but at the same time simpler. And that makes it so much more rewarding.