05 Aug 2025
Only recently did I truly grasp the difference between simple vs complicated and easy vs difficult.
A lot of things in life fall in the bucket of simple. For e.g. weight loss. If you are at a, say, 20%+ body fat percentage, the path to weight loss and getting healthy is pretty simple and straightforward. You know what is the very linear path to reduce your weight and gain muscle (calories deficit with good food and 3-5 days of physical exercise a week). No need for any fancy diet, expensive personal trainer memberships, weird workout routines etc. It is simple. And actually keeping it simple has a much much better chance at getting to the correct output, than complicating it.
The problem starts when we complicate this understanding with the other axis.
Easy vs Difficult.
This simple path is mostly never easy, for most things that really matter in life. In fact, if you are an overweight person, losing weight is probably going to be the most difficult thing you ever do. It is going to go against years of not being physically active, not giving a conscious thought to your weight, overcoming hundreds of psychological barriers and what not. But then, who said it was going to be easy? Nothing in life is. Nothing worth attaining in life is ever easy. By definition, if it was, everyone would be roaming around with 6-pack abs.
But the good thing? It is simple. Most things in life can be simple. There is no need to complicate it. No need to wait for the perfect diet science. No need to spend thousands of dollars. No need to create a 100-step plan. Only will, dedication, and some passion for what you want.
Go down the difficult road. Take solace in the fact that it indeed is simple. That you only need to do the 2-3 simple things, execute it well and get 80% of the output. That just doing the simple thing is indeed going to put you in the 90th percentile of whatever you want in life. And that is a pretty damn good place to be!
A way to actionably make use of this principle is to invert it. What in life are you finding difficult? Is it difficult becuase it is truly complicated or because you have made it complicated? Is there a path to make the complicated bit simple, so you can truly achieve the difficult thing?