Make it simple. Sounding smart vs. Being smart.

#4 - 10.11.20

Brother -

Albert Einstein is famous for saying, “the definition of genius is taking the complex and making it simple.” Simplicity is one of my favorite topics. Many thought leaders have talked about - yet it’s not practiced nearly enough in business or in life. This is my first letter on the subject, but likely not my last.

I tell my teams to always strive to, “make it simple.” It shows that first you truly understand the subject, but more importantly, it makes it easier for you to explain to others. When a team member starts selling an overly complex idea, I will often interrupt saying, “Sorry, I’m not that smart. Can you please make this more simple for me?” This tactic throws people off guard, because who would admit they are not smart? Better yet, it forces the individual to explain the idea more - where you can see if they truly “get it” or not. 

In principle, anytime you’re inclined to use a word that makes you feel smarter than you are, don’t use it. There’s a correlation between the amount of business jargon you use, and how full of shit you are. 

It reminds me of when I was first starting high school. My friend Kyle taught me a trick to sound smart in my papers. If you highlighted the word and right-clicked - it would open a thesaurus with recommended words to use instead. I didn’t know half of these words, but I thought it would make me look smarter.

I remember eagerly applying it to my science paper that week. In every sentence, I was changing words. Probably over 40 changes on a two-page paper. I handed it in the next day with my chest out beaming in pride as I was sure I’d get an “A”. You can imagine my disappointment when it came back with a red mark saying “please see me after class”.

Did I cheat? Is this plagiarism? Were the first ideas that popped into my head. As I approached the teacher after class she asked me some form of “what the hell is this?” I caved instantly, telling her of my thesaurus trick and apologized for plagiarising. She laughed. Explained to me this is not plagiarism but rather a paper that made absolutely no sense. I got a re-do.

What’s crazy to me is that 20 years later - I see employees ranging from new grads to executives that still apply this thesaurus trick in an effort to sound smart. I just finished our leadership summit this week, and have left disappointed. It’s amazing how people can take a simple idea like food delivery, and complexify it as if we were creating rocket fuel to go to Mars.

So my message is this. Make it simple. You’ll attract truly strategic people, vs the people who dad so famously claims, “are so full of shit you can see it coming from their ears”.

Let me leave you with a quote and a question.

“I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”

Mark Twain

Whats was the last topic you simplified for our parents? How did you explain it differently than others normally do?

Enjoy the dance,

Nate