September 1, 2009

The Beauty of Being Simple

Author: cadrivera

Been away for several weeks this August 2009. Went to Kolonia, Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). A dot of an island in the wide Pacific Ocean, the place reminded me that being simple is not really that bad, there might even be cases that this is best.

Assignment in Kolonia was to visit a prospective client. There is a credit union in the FSM interested in computerizing their accounting and other operations. Knowing nothing about the place, several assumptions were made. As it turned out, some assumptions were very far out.

Looking the the manual operations of the credit union, it can be seen that certain thing are the way they are because of necessity. Aspects like computing interest that is made as understandable and repeatable as possible. To avoid complications that are difficult to manage yet can be readily avoided.

Having simple financial operations and service products does not mean a lack of innovation. Rather, it can be said that this is living within your means. Focusing on that things that can be done and performed very efficiently rather than the concentrating on the bells and whistles that in the end don’t amount to anything much.

Being exposed to technology there is always the clamor for the next big thing. While what is next is a good question, is this the right question or the only question? When the purpose of technology is broken down to the most basic and atomic level, isn’t this only a tool. Albeit a very useful tool, it will always come down to being a tool.

Try to see beyond the tool. There are many other aspects to be considered. A hammer with different colors may look very nice but in the end an ordinary hammer will do the same job. Ask the carpenter, and any hammer will do the job of hammering just fine.

New technologies may posses the hype of being next big thing. But won’t it just doing something that is already being done? A thing of beauty need not be a very complex machine with millions of lines of code that costs you an arm and a leg.

Simple things or technologies that do the job well or even very well, isn’t it also a thing of beauty?