Day 23: KISS

(Nikon D60, 35mm DX, f/1.8, 1/50, ISO 200)

Simplicity.  We need more of it.  While the photo above speaks only about communication, it can be applied to other aspects of our daily life.  We spend so much of it freaking out, worrying, and complaining about either things out of our control or minute problems that are so trivial.  I mean really, is saving two minutes really important enough to necessitate cramming into a subway train when there is another one on the other side of the platform (going in the same direction; I'm referring to a station at the end of a line, like Finch, Kennedy, or Downsview Station in Toronto) that has empty seats?  Does saying "yo man that course is so gay, so much work" make it any easier?  I think not.  

"Keep it simple, stupid" - a concept I was introduced to this concept during programming class in Grade 11.  I don't think it's something that should be just limited to programming though; people of all walks of life could use a dose of it.  By far my biggest pet peeve with the more recent part of my generation (Generation Y) is their tendancy to complain about everything and how they feel that succeeding is a right rather than a reward.  An excellent example of this is the school system.  How many kids fail in elementary or high school?  How many teens get into University not because they earned the right to but because they sweet-talked their teachers into boosting their grade because they failed to earn it?  Most of my friends got into school fair and square; I can only recall offhand one friend who asked for a grade bump and he at least had the decency to surpass the minimum entry requirement by a fair margin.

When I graduated High School, I did not have the grades to enter University.  In fact, the string of mail addressed to me in May and June was really just a spat of rejection letters.  The only reason I got in the following September is because I applied for an extension and spent half my summer in school to get my Calculus grade up.  I fought my way in.  I fought my way into a program I didn't even like and pretty much wasted the year (in terms of academics and finances) before switching into my current major.  I bet if more kids spent half the time they did complaining and put that into solving the very problems they were complaining about they'd have the other half to do as they pleased.  Simple.

Don't even get me started with photographers.