Thinking out loud.

The reason, at least in part, in my opinion that we (the USA) are “economically challenged” at the minute is that we have lost our attention to detail. I see this everyday… in my work, in my play, in almost everything. I wish I could tell you how many times at Ernst & Young I took something beautiful (perhaps a really well-formatted spreadsheet for example), gave to someone working for me to complete, and received it back looking like a tornado had ravaged the page. Worse yet, this happened even MORE often after I corrected such a problem and passed that document up to my superior, who prominently fucked it up.

What we as an economy do instead of investing in the details is make things bigger. We are bloody obsessed with bigger (and similarly more complex), like that is the key to economic success. And, in the age of Wal-Mart, maybe it is… but I really don’t think so, and even if it is I don’t care. One of the two most genius people I have ever had the distinct pleasure to learn about, Albert Einstein, was famous for saying:

“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.”

The other of these two most genius people, Buckminster Fuller, famously stated:

“When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.”

Beauty comes from robust simplicity and robust simplicity comes from excruciating attention to detail. This all goes back to my recent about about the lack of craftsmen in the modern economy as well but if you take any pride in your work, why don’t you take the time to invest in the details that set you apart? And if that is not the case, why don’t you find a new line of work where you feel devoting time to detail is worthwhile?