Bad Attempts at Simplification Rule Everything Around Me

AWM #62: On models, assumptions, data vs. anecdotes, and how Confucius was wrong 📈

This is the Atlas of Wonders and Monsters, where we marvel at the wonders of the world, but also attempt to slay the monsters that lurk. Today we are taking on a formidable foe, one that is at the root of many evils, an overlord plotting in the shadows to make everybody miserable: oversimplification. I googled “evil oversimplification” and ended up on a weird Biblical website with a post that begins with a Confucius quote: “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” Which sounds wise and everything, except that after a short intro, the post essentially immediately goes,…

related reading

• Mental Models: The Best Way to Make Intelligent Decisions (~100 Models Explained)fs.blog
• Simplicity is An Advantage but Sadly Complexity Sells Bettereugeneyan.com
• Oversimplifye2eml.school
• A Big Little Idea Called Legibility — Ribbonfarmribbonfarm.com
• Gears in understanding — LessWronglesswrong.com
• Ryo Lu on X: "complexity first, simplicity second people say “keep it simple,” but most approach it backwards. they start from simple, then add on complexity without seeing the whole. that’s how you end up with frankenstein products: clean-x.com
• How People Think · Collaborative Fundcollaborativefund.com
• The Map Is Not the Territoryfs.blog
• princeton.edu/~pkrugman/howiwork.htmlprinceton.edu
• Simple Made Easy - InfoQinfoq.com
• Reductionism — LessWronglesswrong.com
• Reductionism — LessWronglesswrong.com