log 6: simplicity
KISS?
The hardest problems are always the ones that have simple answers. Early in the week, I was reminded on multiple occasions that simplicity is the king of productivity. Every single problem that I solved this week has had a simple answer that I was too blind to see. The reason? Taking steps that were too big to make any progress. Let’s start with the coding I completed.
The only thing that I wanted to accomplish coding for my app this week was the ability to read from Cloud Firestore, create objects that hold the data, and then display the data to the screen in a rectangle. Seems pretty simple, which it is if I went step by step. Instead, I decided that it would be a good idea to do it all at once with multiple files and connections. Clearly, it didn’t go well. I was making progress and learning how to better format information but I couldn’t figure out where I was going wrong. Every time I would fix one error, another would pop up. When I fixed the new error, the old one popped up. I was so confused about what was going wrong because it all theoretically should have worked. I figured I had learned enough to restart from a clean sheet so I did, starting small and on a new file checking my progress along the way. Turns out, all I had to do was go in order. Read from Cloud Firestore, create objects that hold the data, and then display the data on the screen in a rectangle. The error came from linking the information together in multiple files, which is the next step. If all I did was keep it simple, then I would have spared myself some debugging time.
Over the weekend I put some time into a Hotpot meal prep cooking video. Everything I filmed made it to the final cut except for the last clip where I show the meal. Instead of doing a simple slide-in or cut, I decided to be cool and go for a moving shot. I thought it would be interesting to make a moving clip with different speeds that zoomed around showing the final product. It was garbage. If I had just filmed an easy clip I would be done. Instead, I’m still waiting to finish filming. After I messed it up the first time, I messed it up a second time. I had the setup for a simple clip but then took a photo instead. Good thing I prepped three meals worth. I also attempted to make a steak and pasta video this week. It did not go well. Having too many steps and filming at the same time caused me to mess up.
All of these things that went “wrong” were good moments of reflection. If I had just kept it simple I would have been able to accomplish more, but I probably wouldn’t have learned as much. It made me think of an acronym that my dad shared with me during our first business meeting. KISS: Keep it simple, stupid. Turns out that keeping it simple can be applied to a lot in life. So the next time you’re stuck, just KISS!
