Why are things so complicated these days?

Wow, has it really been a year since I last posted a blog update? How time flies when you’re not very busy.

Instead of sitting around doing not very much I’ve been trying to get fit, trying to learn Spanish and I’ve taken up fishing again, although fishing seems to involve lots of sitting around doing not very much so that didn’t work out very well.

As I was pursuing these various activities it struck me how incredibly complicated things are these days. There is a science behind everything these days and no matter how simple something could be, there is always someone or some company that will make it complicated so they can charge huge fees to help you master it.

I used to go fishing when I was at school. At the time I thought I had the very latest equipment including a carbon fibre fishing rod. These days fishing has to be one of the most complicated sports known to man. The array of tackle some people take to the lake or river is incredible. They take so much they can only fish in places they can drive the car too otherwise they have no way of getting all their fishing tackle in place.

They take hours to assemble several rods that sit on electronic bite detectors and they use man made baits that come straight out of an advanced laboratory. They use fish detectors to locate their prey and have decide all sorts of things before they can even cast their line. Why is it so incredibly complicated? Did the fish all suddenly change and are they now all incredibly clever and wise to the fisherman’s tricks?

I borrowed my 8 year old son’s fishing rod and plodded down to the river with a bag of bread and I managed to catch a few fish. I even managed to catch a couple of big fish. There was not a single item of electronics in my fishing box. One rod was more than enough for me as I was frequently only waiting a few minutes before bites. It really doesn’t have to be complicated.

Trying to learn Spanish and trying to get fit were both good examples of how complicated things are these days. To learn Spanish I was given a computer based course that needed an internet connection in order to update itself before it would work. It bombarded me with all sorts of pictures and sounds and videos and I worked my way through all sorts of speech recognition modules and multiple choice tests. I plodded on and at the end of it I still can’t speak Spanish. I think the techno wizardry got in the way of the actual learning process.

I wanted to lose a bit of weight and get a bit fitter so joined a gym. I was assigned an exercise program and shown how loads of different machines work and how to do all sorts of different exercises. I plodded on for months sticking to my program and looking in the mirror each morning trying to spot the difference.

Not much happened until the sun came out. Then I started running along the river and lo and behold, the weight came off and within a couple of months I was able to run for 40 minutes at a good clip without needing oxygen or an ambulance. Job done.

From now on, I am going to think of the simplest way something can be done and only when that fails will I make things complicated.