Eschew obfuscation!

Scene 1: me in Foodworld to purchase eggs.

“sir, where can I find the eggs?”

Store guy: “left, at the corner.”

A nightmare is waiting around the corner: there are 4 different ‘brands’ of eggs. One says it has ‘extra protein’ (how do you measure protein content in egg- without making it unfit for consumption?) another says ‘organic’ (ever heard of inorganic eggs?). other descriptions- I don’t remember.

What I remember- is going to the shop across my house (five years ago), asking for a dozen eggs, and getting them. Times have changed.

Its good to have choices, but to this extent? Organic eggs? You got to be kidding me.

Scene 2: some friends talking.

Dude 1: “hows your new camera?”

Dude 2: “its awesome man. 28 different settings (add 14 (or was it 16?) lines of camera related mumbo-jumbo here.) really cool!”

Dude 1 starts off his advice train: “that’s simple… you have to use (I don’t know- and I don’t care),and don’t forget to change the store mode as RAW.”

Seriously, what the heck? Taking pictures was a creative process; you point at some awesome scene, click, and be done. Maybe zoom a bit to cut out unwanted parts, or focus on certain subjects. Throw in some shoot modes (b/w, sepia). Done. Anything more than that- you are killing the art of clicking the picture.


I have seen my friends waste 15 minutes setting the right exposure, white balance and other tripe instead of moving a little to their left (or right, if you prefer) to get their picture right. waste of time, and not to mention, the money. 

Same with other stuff. In our quest to simplify our lives- we are complicating it. Obfuscation. Confusion. You can eat ‘inorganic’ eggs; you can still shoot great pictures from your cell phone cam. There are helpful people around who can guide you through the city better than a GPS. Still- we choose to overcomplicate our lives.

I really feel out of place sometimes.