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> Figures like Pythagoras, Newton, Descartes, Archytas, and various Indian philosophers, such as Shankaracharya, strongly favored simplicity. Easy to favor sim

> Figures like Pythagoras, Newton, Descartes, Archytas, and various Indian philosophers, such as Shankaracharya, strongly favored simplicity. Easy to favor simplicity when the basics in your field hasn't been fully mapped out yet. Much harder to make a name for yourself when pretty much all the low-hanging (i.e. simple) fruit has been claimed already by people in the past. Most people probably feel they don't have much choice but to pursue more complex ideas nowadays as a result.

atomicnature 3y ago
What about Rickover? He was implementing nuclear energy to practical applications. You read Rickover's doing a job (https://govleaders.org/rickover.htm https://govleaders.org/rickover.htm), he emphasizes simpler concepts such as responsibility and individual initiative to drive complex technical projects. I've shown these ideas to many so-called well-educated college graduates, and they don't warm up to it. They say "processes" > "individual initiative". This is too old-school, too simple, blah, blah. I think people will learn only when you put them in charge of a complex undertaking to appreciate what simplicity means in leadership of complex projects.
- SiempreViernes 3y ago
  Building the first naval reactors ever seems like the very epitome of working in a immature field?
  - atomicnature 3y ago
    The principle of responsibility and individual initiative - applies even today. The challenge is in different form today, there are new immature fields, but that doesn't make having simpler organising concepts outdated.
trashtester 3y ago
> Easy to favor simplicity when the basics in your field hasn't been fully mapped out yet. Partly this, and partly because average college professors are being compared to some of the greatest scholars of all time. Figures like Einstein or Feynman were able to simply inherently difficult/complex problems well into the 20th century, and similar people are surely doing the same today. But often a difficult problem needs to be understood the hard way before it can be simplified down to something that is easier to communicate.

atomicnature 3y ago

What about Rickover? He was implementing nuclear energy to practical applications. You read Rickover's doing a job (https://govleaders.org/rickover.htm https://govleaders.org/rickover.htm), he emphasizes simpler concepts such as responsibility and individual initiative to drive complex technical projects. I've shown these ideas to many so-called well-educated college graduates, and they don't warm up to it. They say "processes" > "individual initiative". This is too old-school, too simple, blah, blah. I think people will learn only when you put them in charge of a complex undertaking to appreciate what simplicity means in leadership of complex projects.

SiempreViernes 3y ago
Building the first naval reactors ever seems like the very epitome of working in a immature field?
- atomicnature 3y ago
  The principle of responsibility and individual initiative - applies even today. The challenge is in different form today, there are new immature fields, but that doesn't make having simpler organising concepts outdated.

trashtester 3y ago

> Easy to favor simplicity when the basics in your field hasn't been fully mapped out yet. Partly this, and partly because average college professors are being compared to some of the greatest scholars of all time. Figures like Einstein or Feynman were able to simply inherently difficult/complex problems well into the 20th century, and similar people are surely doing the same today. But often a difficult problem needs to be understood the hard way before it can be simplified down to something that is easier to communicate.