I read this story recently about a college instructor bringing in about 3 dozen type writers into her language class and getting rid of screens.

‘Brilliant’, I immediately thought.

Simple; Not Easy. This took me way back to one of my very first lessons in Kung Fu.

Going on about 25 years ago now, I was in a 1 on 1 lesson with one of my first Kung Fu instructors at the time. Mr. Lepe. A strong younger man (but still my senior) with a good sense of humour.
He was teaching me a self-defence technique; I can’t remember exactly which one. When I finally got it, due to a little arrogance that came naturally at that age, I exclaimed “it’s easy”.

“No,” he stopped me, “It’s simple”

I raised an eyebrow, because I had never really thought much of the distinction. What he taught me that day was one of my most important life lessons that I carried with me, always.

He explained the technique was simple, as in broken down to its minimally required parts. Anything extra would be less effective, and offer diminishing returns relative to the energy put in. Anything less and it wouldn’t be effective.

He went on to say that it won’t be “easy” when you have to do it against a live opponent, when adrenaline is coursing through your veins, and the stakes are life or death. You’ll be fighting for your life, but it will be simple enough that it has a good chance of working.

It won’t be “easy” when you put in the thousands of repetitions in practice required to make it work, but it will be simple enough that it’s repeatable.

I’ve repeated the phrases thousands of times to countless students over the past 20 years: “Simple; not easy”

We are living in an age of ever-increasing complexity. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; It’s not necessarily a good thing. It’s a thing.

I believe this “Simple, not easy” lesson I learned is the key to the future that we are steam rolling into. One where we are in danger of outsourcing our thinking to Ai systems. Not only that, we potentially outsource our desire for human connection to well-crafted chatbots, and we outsource the adversity that makes us who we are by looking for ‘easier’ ways to do things.

What I love about the typewriter story is that I know those kids are going to have a very difficult time learning to write on typewriters from the 80s. The adversity of it will shape them into better writers, better communicators. After the struggle is overcome, they’ll love it, and they’ll have skills that their counterparts do not have.

Simple; not easy.

Now, having said that, we’re not going to scrap our phones, tablets, laptops, and ban Ai. It’s not going to happen. We’re going to have to surf through this ever-growing complexity.

Some people will not fare very well. Remember the movie Wall-e? When life was made super easy, and there was no adversity at all among the remaining earthlings. It didn’t work out too well for them. Put it on your watch list if you haven’t seen it before. Must see, at least once, especially if you have kids.

Anyway, if we keep making easy a priority, that’s kind of where we’re headed,

But, if we make SIMPLE a priority, we can still lean into the adversity that builds our skill, strengthens our connections, and sharpens our competence.

Bruce Lee said it even more simply: “Don't pray for an easy life pray for the strength to endure a difficult one”

Striving to break things down into their minimally required parts is not the same as making them easy, or taking away the struggle altogether.

Remember to differentiate the two.

‘Easy’ doesn’t build character, strength, or skill, and ‘Simple’ doesn’t take them away.

Sifu Rob Atalick
Owner/Master Instructor
Niagara Kung Fu Academy

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