There’s simplicity.
Simple beauty of the things we readily find in this world.
Simple beauty of a simple work, and it’s produce.
There’s sophistication.
Sophisticated beauty of the things we not so easily find in this world.
Sophisticated beauty of a sophisticated work, and it’s sophisticated produce.
Beauty obviously indicates value. Or more precisely: value is manifested in beauty.
Both simplicity and sophistication can be beautiful — because either can have value.
Simple solution, simple beauty, can be superior to complicated solution, sophisticated beauty.
And so the other way around:
Complicated solution, sophisticated beauty, can be superior to crude solution, simplistic beauty.
The problem is in understanding which is better.
Sophistication is not the goal. Simplification is not the goal.
OPTIMAL SOLUTION is the goal.
BEAUTY is the goal.
VALUE (which beauty indicates) is the goal.
In problem-solving you want to establish a hypothesis with least assumptions.
You test it. If it works — great. If you can — still simplify it. Find MORE universal principles.
And if you need more specific answers, more specific use-case — you can add complexity. You introduce more assumptions, more conditions, more variables, more options.
And at any point you can go wrong. In simplification you can kill nuance. In complication you can introduce noise instead of insight.
The best solution achieves the most with the least.
“THE MOST” — which implies an INCREASE — increase in utility, but also inevitably increase in complexity.
“THE LEAST” — which implies a DECREASE — decrease in complexity, decrease in input.
You optimise both at all times,
And sometimes you discard all your work and restart. Because it’s already too noisy, too unduly complicated. Or perhaps I’s already too simplified and orthodox, incapable of admitting of any more nuance.
And it’s the same with “Beauty”,
It’s not whether the simple beauty is superior or the sophisticated beauty is superior.
Depending on context you may choose to explore different kind of beauty.
The beauty of the ripe fields, of lush forests, of abundant water — it is not diminished each time it is reaffirmed.
It’s just that the beauty of something else is in that moment NOT being affirmed. It’s an opportunity cost. Beauty of a more specific value, more specific aspect of the world, more specific aspect of existence — it is NOT being affirmed, when you choose to focus on something simpler.
And when you’re done satiating your hunger with nourishing nectars — you mayhaps turn your attention elsewhere — and explore beauty there, and explore value there and utility there,
You sophisticate
And it’s no different to art and culture — which abstracts beauty from utility,
It abstracts the beauty which is the mark of value, and explores it, ponders it, contemplates it,
And the forest and the fields and the lakes and rivers and mountains — those don’t get old,
But we may want to abstract a different kind of beauty.
AND it’s not that either is superior to the other,
The only way to go wrong is if you fail to EXPLORE exactly that which is fit for you to explore at that moment
How do you fail that?
If you indulge in the simple beauty indefinitely — you are paying the opportunity cost of exploring more specific, “sophisticated” beauty,
Beauty indicates value. And your meek and complacent attitude to beauty is reflected in your meek and complacent attitude to value. You FAIL to acquire MORE value. You fail to evolve.
The other way you fail is even more insidious,
If you are beguiled by a pretence of “sophistication” — without yet acquiring true appreciation of it — then you forsake BOTH the simple beauty – AND the sophisticated beauty,
AND you forsake both the simple value to be had — and the sophisticated and grand and magnificent value to win within this lifetime.
The disgusting pretence of false artists, intellectual poseurs, sophists and false winners — it is so abhorrent for reason no different but that it indicates someone who is missing out on ALL the value period: both the simple value and the sophisticated value.
It’s a cautionary tale of what not to be: a pretentious cunt.
Once you see through that facade — it is impossible to unsee it. You harbour nothing but contempt for such larp.
The single nuance here is that you can be both. It’s entirely feasible to:
-Oversimplify on one front
-Overcomplicate (at the expense of any understanding or value) on the other front
Therefore you too have to simultaneously lean in BOTH directions:
–Sophistication — even at the expense of immediate, pragmatic solutions and immediate gratification of simple beauty
–Simplification — even at the expense of your expert and connoisseur and “success” LABEL — humble and flexible and adaptable
You have to concede with being a simple no-nonsense straightforward and mechanical executor sometimes — even at the expense of popularity, perception, inspiration, vision
You have to concede with being an unsophisticated, tasteless simpleton, who “doesn’t get it” and is instead entrenched in his simple and/or traditional interests and passions.
Likewise you have to concede with being an overthinker and overanalyser, a nerd, an egghead, an unintelligible weirdo,
And you have to concede with being a pretentious cunt, with being “artsy”, with being too fashionable or too unfashionable, with being a sell-off or starving
There’s simplicity
There’s sophistication
You need both
And you must understand both
Understand when to seek simplicity and understand when to seek sophistication