When NASA first planned to send up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ball-point pens would not work in zero gravity.
To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $1.2 billion to develop a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass, and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300 Celsius.
Confronted with the same problem, the Israelis used a pencil. (If you go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_gravity_pen it explains why the pencil really wasn’t a good idea though)
Someone forwarded me this online a few weeks ago. It made me think. Why do we go out of our way so often to make things more complicated than they need to be? I think we’ve gotten too programmed by society to do everything bigger and better than the person or persons before us – that we tend to over-think everything. Sometimes we just need to take a step back and simplify. Sometimes the route from point A to point B can still be a straight line.
Find pleasure in simple things again.
Can you think of an example in your life were you’ve gone back to basics and gone the simple route?
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I just recently turned off my cable tv. Its a little thing, but its encouraged me to get out and exercise, listen to something more educational (like NPR) and it saves me $70 a month.
I’ve thought about it! God knows I have enough movies here to occupy me without watching TV!
We also got rid of cable and internet, saving us over $100 per month. we use the landlord’s wireless and now turn the TV off most of the time, rather than letting it make excess noise. The pace of our house has slowed down, we talk more and never worry about paying a cable bill to watch commercials telling us to get satellite!
I’ve considered getting rid of our land line phone but haven’t done it. We’d die without internet. Cable has gone through my mind. I’d be more apt to get rid of it if I was working, but it gives me something to watch all day…. Even though we do spend quite a bit of time watching movies…. I do tend to DVR alot though, I HATE commercials!! I’m so glad you’ve checked out my blog now! I hope you subscribe. I want to interview you for my interview series. We have to get together soon!
Hee hee we just got cable not too long ago. We didn’t have it for almost 2 yrs!
I am not sure how I could simplify my life. I do kick the kids off the video games and make them go outside and be kids like we use to when we were kids!
On the weekends, my husband and I try to have at least one day where we sleep in and cuddle all morning. Then spend the day reading or watching TV. We all need at least one easy going day without the hustle and bustle of this crazy world!
I didn’t have cable for the longest time and I did just fine. Though now I’m more hooked on things like HLN – Headline News and shows that I need cable to get….
I think a cuddle day per week is a VERY good thing 🙂
Huh.. Funny, when I first read this tale years ago, it was the Russians, not the Israelis.
The only reason I have cable tv service is the bundle of basic cable tv and internet is a few dollars cheaper a month than just internet. I don’t even have the cable hooked up to the tv.
As a programmer, the KISS principal is one I always try to keep in mind. The poor shmuck that’s gonna have to fix the problems that will inevitably occur is likely to be me. Am I going to remember that stroke of genius that inspired this radical departure from the norm in six months? At two in the morning, when the pager goes off because the entire eastern seaboard of the US is down? Not freaking likely. Six minutes, maybe. Six hours, that’s questionable. Six days…Um.. yeah.
The new shiny tech might be teh sexeh, but does it really do the job better? All too often, the answer is “Not just no, but (*@#$(*#@ no.” And the worst part about it is realizing this, at two in the morning, because the pager just went off.
Again.
Yes – K.I.S.S. for sure is the way to go!!