STR4T_SCR4PS v139

urbanized culture.

Alex Morris

Dec 13, 2023

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This is a really great article about the nature of complexity - Why Life Can’t Be Simpler

A few super interesting tidbits;

Homework isn’t for the benefit of the student. It is for the benefit of the parent.

“An example of desirable minimum complexity is help with homework. For many parents, helping their children with their homework often feels like unnecessary complexity. It is usually subjects and facts they haven’t thought about in years, and they find themselves having to relearn them in order to help their kids. It would be far simpler if the teachers could cover everything in class to a degree that each child needed no additional practice. However, the complexity created by involving parents in the homework process helps make parents more aware of what their children are learning. In addition, they often get insight into areas of both struggle and interest, can identify ways to better connect with their children, and learn where they may want to teach them some broader life skills.”

Homework is important because it keeps parents engaged.

“In order to do things in the simplest way, we need a lot of options.”

this example is given;

Perceived simplicity is not at all the same as simplicity of usage: operational simplicity. Perceived simplicity decreases with the number of visible controls and displays. Increase the number of visible alternatives and the perceived simplicity drops. The problem is that operational simplicity can be drastically improved by adding more controls and displays. The very things that make something easier to learn and to use can also make it be perceived as more difficult.

I think the relevance here is pretty obvious with how much time we spend making things simpler in perception up front, only to pay for it with operational complexity down the line.

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Kotsko notes that Western classical music — the quintessential art form for the “classically modern” way of paying attention — is “an outlier among world musical traditions is in its near-total prohibition of audience participation,”

The thing we call “classic” is really the outlier.

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https://twitter.com/chlabacher/status/1732553928175214596?s=12&t=CdyBqacwGHUbz5sS7O-ZdA

This is a cool way to keep track of your thoughts. But all I can think is how much “thought-admin” time this would take.

Am I not taking enough administrative time for my thoughts? (that’s kind of the purpose of this newsletter tbh).

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Not sure what I had planned on the 17th, but I can promise you I did not get it done.

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Ritual is a viewfinder into so much. society, individual identity, ... sanity.

It can be good or bad. Audit your own rituals now and then. And start looking beyond “consumer behavior” into “consumer rituals”

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BRING BACK THE RANDOM INTERNET.

Healthy Culture requires randomness

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In a previous newsletter I mentioned something about “the art of client maintenance” – but it’s bigger than that.

Culturally, we’ve stopped thinking about maintenance at all. We want to "accomplish” but rarely even consider the “maintain” part. It is a cultural value shift that is pretty pervasive across all elements of our life.

I’m no exception. The whole reason I got into advertising was so that I could work on one thing, complete it, then move on to something else.

But this isn’t really a healthy way to think about … anything?

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The biggest casualty of digital music was the liner note.