Don't Rush to Simplicity

An Article by Shawn Wang

You've probably heard this story before:

A businessman finds a fisherman, who is living an idyllic, peaceful life by the sea.
He laughs and tells the fisherman how to get rich instead.
The fisherman asks him what he will do after he gets rich.
He replies that he would retire to an idyllic, peaceful life by the sea.

There's supposed to be a deep life lesson in there, but it's always felt insincere to me.

To me it is better to have reached the heights of a career, or suffered an epic defeat, even if I do end up in the same place as everyone else in the end.

To me simplicity is made more beautiful when understood through a long personal struggle with complexity. When I can dance with it, having turned a mighty nemesis into an old friend, and teach others to do the same.

Better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.

  1. ​On the other side of complexity​
  2. ​Mountains are mountains​