1, #74 - The Paradox of Simplicity
Estimated Read Time: 39 seconds.
“What is simple is always false. What is not is unusable.” — Paul Valéry
I love simplicity—particularly the informed simplicity on the other side of complexity. But I came across this quote from a French philosopher-poet, which identifies an unavoidable conundrum: When you reduce something down, it’s easier to communicate and use and remember… but it’s also not as comprehensive.
This idea has also been called Borini’s Paradox:
“As a model of a complex system becomes more complete, it becomes less understandable. Alternatively, as a model grows more realistic, it also becomes just as difficult to understand as the real-world processes it represents.”
This explains why advice is overrated and playbooks don’t work: they can allude to the underlying concepts, but they can’t fully convey them.
I think about this a lot, with this newsletter—I’d love to discuss the things I find in greater depth. But if I did, would you still read them all the way through?
Insight inspired by: Paul Valéry. And thanks to Joe Zadeh for sharing the quote in this amazing essay.
This is such a thought provoking post and reiterates the idea that there is no shortcut to knowledge. The simplified framework / summary is only useful if you truly know and understand the concept and everything that lead up to that understanding.
To answer your question -- I'd still read it all the way through because I enjoy your writing and appreciate your perspective. But would I open it as quickly? Or would I bookmark it with my growing list of yet unread Substacks?