The Seduction of Complexity — the shiny trap we keep falling into

Are you hiding?

I think you are.

I know I am sometimes.

Hiding behind flashy tools.
Trendy routines.
“The best exercises.”
The newest systems.
The magic trick that finally unlocks your potential.

But the more I look around, the more I notice something strange.

The people who actually inspire me are rarely chasing the shiny stuff.

They’re doing simple things , over and over again, for years.

And somehow it works.

Take Derek Sivers.

He built CD Baby using simple PHP and MySQL. Nothing fancy. No giant engineering teams. No crazy infrastructure.

He learned programming from cheap magazines during the early days of the web.

While other people were building massive companies with big teams and complicated tech stacks, he just learned the basics and applied them well. That was enough to build a real business.

And eventually he sold it.

Then there’s Jeff Alberts.

He’s been lifting weights for over four decades.

His workouts are boring in the best way possible. Basic movements. Controlled reps. Paying attention to what he’s doing.

No “10 exercises you must do for huge arms.”
No “THIS IS KILLING YOUR GAINS.”
No dramatic bullshit.

Just the basics, done with care.

And it’s not foolproof either. There’s still risk. You can still get injured. You can still stall. You can still mess things up for a while.

But that’s part of the process.

Then there’s David Lynch.

His movies like Mulholland Drive or Lost Highway are some of the most fascinating things I’ve ever watched.

They feel mysterious, complex, almost surreal.

But when you listen to him talk about his life, it’s surprisingly simple.

He ate the same meals almost every day.
He meditated for decades.
Just simple Transcendental Meditation — twice a day for twenty minutes.

That’s it.

No crazy biohacking routine.
No complicated systems.

And somehow from that simple structure came incredible creative work.

The pattern keeps repeating.

Simple inputs.
Long periods of practice.
Real attention.

Meanwhile the internet screams the opposite.

Open TikTok or Instagram and it looks like everyone has everything figured out.

There’s always a new secret.

The best routine.
The perfect diet.
The ultimate productivity system.

Just find that missing piece and suddenly your life will unlock.

But honestly, most of it feels like bullshit.

Look around for a second.

We have more tools, information, and comfort than any generation before us.

Yet people are still:

tired
depressed
overweight
anxious
burned out

Something clearly isn’t working.

Maybe the real answer isn’t adding more complexity.

Maybe it’s removing it.

The more I simplify things in my own life, the more surprised I am.

Simple meals.
Simple workouts.
Simple routines.
Focusing on a few important things instead of chasing ten different improvements at once.

Life actually becomes more enjoyable.

Less strain.
Less mental noise.

And ironically, things often start working better.

So if I had to give any advice today, it would be simple.

Simplify.

And then simplify again.

It won’t look impressive on social media.

It won’t make you look like a genius with a perfect system.

But it might actually make your life work a little better.