Beware of simple ideas

Regular readers will know I love to distil to simplicity, with ideas such as Ockham’s Razor, the Da Vinci quote “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”, as well as the idea that “if I’d had more time I would have written something shorter”.

What I don’t tend to write about, though, is that before seeking to distil (including distilling to these relatively short daily blog posts), I often read and research in-depth to understand the background (and I’ve just linked to five earliest posts as background).

As an example, yes I posted strong opinions quite a while ago about the lack of viability of the WeWork model, but prior to doing so, I read everything I could find about their numbers and business model. Mind you, as soon as I read about “community adjusted EBITDA” my bullshit detector went into overdrive!

Today, then, I’m curating a terrific post from Tim Harford of “Undercover Economist” fame. In this, he warns of the danger of simple ideas. In a UK context, I very much agree with his assessment of Labour party ideas and even policies around such things as nationalisation, shares in companies to the public etc. Depending on your politics, the ideas may well be both simple and…