Simplicity
from Complexity - change yourself (and the world)
Focus questions for Adelaide Lunchtime
Seminar, 5 March 2018
(https://www.meetup.com/AdelaideLunchtimeSeminar/ )
1. A simplicity dividend is a bigger idea than efficiency
because it includes efficiency with benefits - for all parties. A
simple system that runs badly is not really simple because it has
negative dividends. This can be applied to your life, to a company,
or to the governance of a country. So what does it mean to aim for
simplicity with positive dividends? Usually it means understanding
and redesigning something complex to access it in a simpler way.
What examples can you think of?
2. If you had a
guaranteed basic income, describe how you would restructure your
life for a simplicity dividend.
3. In any
population, people have very different levels of competence and
comprehension at whatever we try to measure. Almost 47% of
Australians are functionally illiterate to the point of being unable
to read bottle labels. Many or the rest struggle with more than a
paragraph of text (hence the success of Facebook, Twitter etc). Even
more are innumerate. It is similar with computer literacy. So if a
government creates a computerized administrative system which looks
simpler to bureaucrats, but exceeds the competence of many clients,
there will be no simplicity dividend for either party. Reference:
Centrelink. How can we solve this dilemma?
4. Many service
industries claim to save clients 'time'. Often what they really
offer is a simplicity dividend. They offer a simple or simpler
interface to clients on issues which might be rather complex behind
the scenes. Sometimes that arbitrage is artificial (e.g. lawyers
thrive on manufacturing apparent complexity). The client pays a high
fee to get their simplicity dividend in the form of being able to
get on with their lives with less hassle. People who lack technical
competence may be unable to function at all without the mediation of
a fixer (e.g. be unable to set up a mobile phone or plan a flight
itinerary). What are some problems with just allowing the market to
set the price doe this kind of simplicity dividend?
5. Large numbers
of people either want to or are forced (by the labour market) to
start their own business. However a high proportion of these people
lack various kinds of competence or aptitude to actually start and
run a successful business. Franchises offer a simplicity dividend to
these people in the form of templates which guide franchise clients
(to a greater or lesser degree) in the actual processes of
commercial business. Given the personal limitations of franchise
holders, how often is the simplicity dividend they try to purchase
illusory? Is there a better or fairer way to arbitrate the risks and
losses?
6. A smart phone can contain 2 billion or
more transistors. The internal functions are beyond the
comprehension of all but a few specialists. Yet the simplified
interface of smart phones (and of operating systems generally) has
offered a simplicity dividend which is changing civilizations. These
smart phones enable non technical people to do things which they had
never thought possible before. What general principles we can
extract from this smart phone example? e.g. what kinds of technical
innovation are going to offer major simplicity dividends to large
numbers of people?
7. When students
graduate at whatever level with no further desire to retain, then
deepen their knowledge (as opposed to obtaining yet another paper
diploma), then the educational process has failed. This is in spite
of ever increasing educational costs and ever proliferating
institutions. If you accept this premise, then education systems
seriously fail most students. If you had oversight of Australian
educational systems, how would you seek a simplicity dividend for
both providers and students, given current weaknesses?
8. When confidence exceeds competence,
people are apt to do stupid things and have stupid opinions. This is
known as the Dunning-Kruger effect (after a series of psychological
experiments). That is, when people don't know what they don't know,
they tend to think that things are simpler than they really are.
They are seeking a simplicity dividend when there is none to be had.
This is sometimes a problem of youth or inexperience, sometimes it
is a matter of ingrained personality. The current presidency of the
United States is a striking example, (but it is also common to
politics generally). What is the best way to handle those people, or
groups of people, who are seeking simplicity dividends where there
are none to be had?
9. West African
email scams offering love or a surprise inheritance use clumsy
language but are profitable. They work because they select victims
for stupidity, which is exactly what the principals want. Australian
recruitment advertisements typically use vague, misleading and
inflated language. They regularly select candidates who are vague,
misleading and have inflated confidence. There is research to show
that average recruitment outcomes are no better than tossing a coin.
If you were the human resources manager for a large organization how
would you restructure recruitment to obtain a simplicity dividend
for both employers and candidates?
10. Humans always
seek a certain level of complexity, but that level is different for
each individual. For personal harmony it must be neither too complex
nor too simple. All societies reflect this complexity. For example,
the lives of hunter-gatherer groups may seem materially simple, but
invariably they have complex spiritual beliefs, myth cycles and
genealogical conventions. As modern societies have multiplied
material complexity they have tended to simplify or even eliminate
the mythic and spiritual dimensions. Does this suggest that there is
some optimum simplicity dividend governed by human psychology? How
could such an optimum simplicity dividend be estimated?
11. Estonia has
come up with a rather original idea. Anyone in the world can obtain
an Estonian e-identity card. With an Estonian e-identity card you
can open an Estonian bank account remotely, start and register a
company and perform many other bureaucratic tasks cheaply with a few
button clicks. A condition is that the Estonian government must have
access to your bank account at all times. However you have automatic
access to see at any time who has accessed your personal
information, why, and the ability to ask that each access be
justified. This is intended to minimize corruption. In fact,
Estonia, a small country, is putting its entire government into an
integrated and backed up system which can be moved intact to another
country such as England should Russia ever invade. The e-identity
card offers a simplicity dividend for Estonians, and a potential
simplicity dividend for international citizens who can outsource
functions away from their home government (e.g. preparing tax
returns) to an automated system optimized for efficiency. How well
do you think this might or might not work? Give reasons. Background
article: "An Estonian e-residency identity card - The most advanced
digital society in the world is a former Soviet Republic on the edge
of the Baltic Sea" @
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/estonia-e-resident
Thor's
own websites:
1. articles at
http://independent.academia.edu/ThorMay
;
2.
legacy site: http://thormay.net
.
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