Which type of smart person would you like to be? [See details].

Sometimes one and sometimes the other. Clearly, the second type is what I’d prefer to be; I’m working on it.

I’d like to be both.

The first kind when I’m brain-storming. There are a lot of “simple” things that are often over-looked and readily dismissed. Sometime you just need to be pull them apart and re-examined them in a different light which may seem like you’re convoluting the matter.

And I’d like to be the second kind when finding a solution. More often than not, a good solution should be simple.

I don’t accept the premise.

I think there are also smart people who acquire the knowledge and gain the skill to deal with very complex issues that most of us don’t think about. Their job is not to teach or explain but to work directly in the content or process area of their expertise. They talk to other people with the same knowledge base, so they don’t have to complicate or simplify. And many of them do it out of a passion for the field, irrespective of riches.

I appreciate the point that the father was trying to make to his son, and no doubt it was inspiring, but I think he took a complicated concept and made it too simple to be meaningful.

For a long time, I taught people how to work with chocolate. Chocolate behaves in very unintuitive ways, and understanding why that’s the case is not at all easy.

So I faced a dilemma: Should I just teach them a method, describing the procedures for manipulating the chocolate without delving into the “why” behind the procedures? That’s all most people learn, but it produces what I think of as Chinese room chocolatiers who are bound by rules that they don’t understand and are incapable of thinking creatively.

Or should I put them through the rigors of learning about triglyceride chemistry, polymorphic crystallization, exothermic reactions and thyxotropic fluid dynamics? Then, and only then, would they really get what the chocolate is doing. But frankly, most just don’t care quite that much.

What I settled on was a compromise: I told them from the outset that what I was giving them wasn’t exactly the truth. It was a close-enough way of understanding the chocolate, one that wouldn’t immunize them from all unpleasant surprises down the road, but would at least give them a semblance of mastery.

As I lectured, I was very aware of all the stuff I was leaving out, stuff it had taken me long years of work to understand on my own. I would have loved to take them to that level, but I never sensed the hunger on their part. I could have done it anyway, just to impress them a bit, but I would have risked snuffing whatever interest they did have.

Learning most things in depth follows a trajectory something like this: You’re faced with something quite simple—the thing itself, just as it is. Chocolate, say. To gain an exhaustive conceptual grasp of that simple thing, though, requires a vastly complicated analytical process. But, having waded through all that complication allows you—oddly enough—to leave the complication behind and engage the simplicity on a deeper, more intimate level.

There’s a familiar Zen way of stating this: Before awakening, a mountain is just a mountain. When seeking awakening, a mountain is no longer a mountain. After awakening, a Mountain is a truly a Mountain.

I’d like to be the 2nd kind since most people enjoy to be around that more than the 1st and I want the people I care about to want to be around me.

@thorninmud, I hadn’t heard any of that before, but “Amen!” nonetheless. Too true.

There was never a question in my mind. I was a service person, as was my father and my brothers. Making money was never the issue as long as you had enough to live on. One saved up if a special something was wanted. Fortunately, I’ve never been impressed with the rewards of rich people.

Someday I hope to be the kind of adult who has an umbrella.
That should explain everything.

I think Van’s father offered a false alternative. But I am probably not all that smart myself.

@janbb Me too. My wife says you ask me what time it is, and I tell you how to build a clock. But I am making efforts at making the complicated simple and easier to grasp. If I can do that successfully enough in the complex area of Website ownership, it will actually make me a good deal of money. So the two aren’t always mutually exclusive.

@Nimis Very good answer.

@Jeruba I think Van Jones’ dad knew where his son was likely heading and wanted to shape him in decisions he would have to make after graduating from Law School. As I read on in the book, I see that his dad’s advice was probably a very deliberate over-simplification but it lead to a great outcome.

@thorninmud If I were not a web developer, I might love to learn the intricacies of being a master chocolatier. But it’s probably best I stick with website development. If I ran a choclate factory, I’d probably eat up all the profits and soon be unable to leave the building except through the cargo bay door.

@Sunny2 Well thank you and your relatives for your service.

@AshLeigh You can acquire umbrellas in a number of ways.

@josie Clearly, as @Jeruba notes, there are other alternatives. I think the elder Jones knew his son and confined his advice to what Van Jones would be likely to do in life after graduation and passing the Bar exams. If you read the book, I think you will be surprised to find that his dad’s advice ultimately lead Van Jones to espouse many of the self reliance values that conservatives, including you, preach. He most definitely didn’t start that way, but life experience led him to see the need for more than just protests and handouts if he was going to rescue inner-city youths. They needed to learn the mindset and skills that would let them get and keep a job.

@ETpro, yes, but can I be the kind of adult that actually uses them?
Not yet. That’s a big step.

It is actually more difficult to take a complex idea and simplify it for a layman to understand then go the other way around. To do this, you really need to have a deep understanding of the concept you are trying to explain. It is a beautiful skill. Anyone can take a simple idea and make it complicated, but that’s not usually very productive.

@thorninmud Great answer! I couldn’t agree more, and I especially liked your zen analogy. I would love to learn these things about chocolate…

@AshLeigh Have it your way. But little steps are generall you you get big things done.

@wallabies Very true, it’s much harder to make difficult things simple; and much more useful a skill.

@ETpro, I must have misunderstood your question. I thought you were asking us to apply this advice to ourselves and not to judge how appropriate it was for the subject of the book. I have no doubt that it suited the young man. It just doesn’t work for me. I see it as a false dichotomy.

@Jeruba I always hesitate to ask a question that reading a book suggests for that very reason. There is so much contextual detail that applies that writing a concise set of details for the question may prove impossible. And If I write a book of details, it generally goes unread by those who answer.

Anyway, I am deep enough into the book now that I can heartily recommend it. It’s great reading and very enlightening.

@thorninmud Anything you want to teach me about Zen chocolate, I’d be happy to learn.