I heard of the KISS system long ago - keep it simple, stupid. That came to mind the other day when I read that complexity was the kiss of death on the web. People don't want more than one idea per article - and that idea had better be nice and easy. Dense writing does not get read. That's it, plain and simple.
Plus, people don't want hard words - don't use a long word if a short one will do. Big words turn people off.
Which people, I wondered? And if it's true, just what does this mean? Is this the kiss of death for thinking?
I thought of Dead Poet's Society, a brilliant film about a teacher who really reaches students. The message is the opposite. Use vivid language. Don't always say sad. Say glum, morose, grief-stricken, sullen.
And I thought of my students. Many of them, college students, display mental rigidity - almost a rigor mortis of the brain when it comes to some ideas. All opinions are equal, they hold - and can't recognize that KKK opinions might not have as much validity as opinions based on evidence, in this case evidence that humans, whatever our race, are inherently equal (basic equality in intellectual and emotional range).
Evidence is irrelevant to most of my students, when it comes to opinions. How can I possibly bring up something like evidence in relationship with opinions? Even more horrific, how can I possibly question that all opinions are equal? They look at me as if I were some alien monster.
But, I counter, their opinion means that the opinion that all opinions are not equal is just as valid as the opinion that all opinions are equal. After all, all opinions are equal - even the opinion that they are not equal. That's a contradiction, I continue. Again, that's irrelevant to most of them. Many faces turn blank and stony.
The wall.
For more on the inequality of opinions, read Stupid Opinion #2:
http://www.elsas-word-story-image-idea-music-emporium.com/the-idea-emporium-stupid-opinion-2.html
For another stupid opinion, click onto Stupid Opinion #1 - the stupid opinion that we are all where we are meant to be. Millions of people hold onto it as if to give it up meant death - though this opinion means that every rape victim, murder victim, everyone who dies in a genocide is where they are meant to be.
I said, don't keep it simple.
But I am keeping it simple. And my point is equally simple: we need quality, we need works that challenge and stimulate - or we get mental couch potatoes.
Our brains, like our bodies, need to learn how to function well - or our thinking is as clumsy as the violin playing of someone taking their first lesson. Painful.
For stimulating thinking, try The Idea Emporium:
http://www.elsas-word-story-image-idea-music-emporium.com/the-idea-emporium-3.html
I don't know if quality triumphs every time. Actually I know it doesn't. Lots of people like junk food - and junk thinking.
I do know that, with ideas as with food, in many ways, you very often are what you eat.
Many foods are linked with cancer. I wonder what poor thought patterns contribute to cancer of the thought processes.
Responses welcome.
Elsa
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This piece was sparked by a brief blog entry on EzineArticles.com. The main idea: dense writing does not get read.
The basic point: to get read on the web, keep it simple, simple, simple - in ideas, in vocabulary (a word I probably shouldn't use, as it's long!!), in every way.
I don't believe in unnecessary complexity. I also don't believe in unnecessary simple-mindedness. Flat language. Flat thinking. A flat-line brain.
I love to think. And I find it boring to be around people who don't. Imagine dance - two moves only, everything else is just too much. A painting - two shapes only. Nothing too difficult. And so on, ad nauseum.
As a species, we feed on challenge. I have just been learning web design. Frustrating - and fascinating.
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Another thought on the importance of ongoing mental challenge. A longitudinal study was done on a group of nuns. The finding. Those who, when young, had mental flexibility, a large vocabulary, as well as a wide range of interests and thought patterns, were mentally undiminished in old age. On the other hand, those nuns with a narrow and rigid thought range were often senile - with deep ruts, it seems, dug into their brains.
Of course it's not so simple: some brilliant people are felled by Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. But it was great to find out something that made deep intuitive sense to me: mental flexiblity is developed and needs to be exercised. It doesn't just happen.
I have an 83-uear-old dance teacher. Very mentally alert, always ready to see what I've learned, always responsive to the world around her - which includes keeping up with what's new and changing in the dance world. She listens outward - instead of deepening ruts in her brain. A delight to be around.
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Elsa - prof, writer, visual artist, thinker, performer. Love life, thinking, creating, doing, reaching. All my life, creativity has played an enormous part. The magic of story, music, songs, imagining. Also, the magic of thinking well, creatively.
Website:
http://elsas-word-story-image-idea-music-emporium.com
"It is a fact readily acknowledged, that for humans, an idea is much more powerful than a fact." One idea: just as ideas can close our minds, they can open them to new worlds and visions.
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