Kiss Blog Ideas Week 214 ~ Is simplicity the shortest route to truth?
Is simplicity the shortest route to truth?
I remember back then in secondary school, when my mathematics teacher taught us a particular topic in mathematics, (I can't remember) the formula he gave us to use in solving the problem was lengthy and we knew it would be a hard task for us during our examination because we won't be entering the examination hall with our book, so, we asked him for a simple or shortest formula to be able to cram or remember and use in the examination hall and he said;
"No shortcut, there is no shortcut, you have to go through the right process. There is no shortest way to get your answer, to be able to get your answer correctly, you have to use this format or formula."
Although I do not or can not remember his words vividly, they were in those lines, and I am sure many of us one way or another may have heard that phrase used in a situation at a certain time or moment to drive a message home "No shortcut in life".
I had to sit with this topic to be sure I understood what it meant, so then I went on to ask myself, "What exactly is simplicity?"
It is a state of being simple, the state of being easy to understand, a state of being uncomplicated, a state of being free from unnecessary, loud, extravagant life or lifestyles. Simplicity means being simple but also classy, well-mannered, and well cautious.
So, from my definition of simplicity, does it look like it could be the shortest route to truth?
For me, I don't think so, but this is what I do think, simplicity could be the direct route to truth but not the shortest route to truth because I don't think truth itself is probably simple, it isn't.
People want the truth but not many of us can stand hearing the truth or can handle the truth as simple, raw, and plain as it is being thrown at us. We hear things like, "I want to know the truth" but hit us with the truth, and you would find us, dumbfounded, or dumbstruck because we weren't expecting the amount of truth thrown at us, humans generally, in reality don't absorb truth the way they think they should or they can, so is truth actually simple?
Let's not forget that the universe is messy, chaotic, full of contradictions. One minute, people are standing for a certain thing as the truth, the next minute, the goalpost is being shifted to something else as the truth. Most truths aren't always all shining and glamorous, most truths are filled with thorns, twists, and turns along the way, so I wouldn't say that, in totality simplicity is the shortest route to truth but I would prefer to say that simplicity can guide one down the straightest path to truth, it could be a direct route or pointer to truth.
Not all truth comes in simple form or in simplicity, some of them are hard nuts, that needs to be cracked, and even though some truth would come in simplicity, it still doesn't mean that it came in the shortest route, it may have passed through a furnace, brimstone, waves, and thunderstorms, they didn't just fly and drop in front of you, they were trialed and acquitted before they became the truth you are seeing or hearing.
Most truths aren't simple even if they came in a blink of an eye and simplicity is not the shortest route to truth, simplicity is better said to be the direct route to truth. Truth isn't as simple as we make it sound, instead, simplicity is the coat we use in wrapping truth, like the beautiful aesthetic towels used in carrying babies around to make them look appealing to others. We just need simplicity to grab onto truth.
Simplicity isn’t truth itself, Truth sometimes damn complex, complicated, and messy, the same way humans are. Simplicity only strips off the excesses and shows us what is actually there.
All images are mine