Making the Simple Complex.

We talk of the world that was, and we remember simpler times. People reminisce about times when you could understand how to operate your TV; today our remote controls require advanced degrees. Times when a vacation meant going to the cottage in St. Agathe, outside of Montreal; today we plan multi-country tours of Europe and Asia. Mainframes seemed so complicated back then, these computers would simplify our lives and in many ways they have. Consider computers of today and how much more complex they are then the originals; we look back at these computers and consider how simple they were. We have gained power and have added to the complexity. In many ways the Internet exists to help solve issues with computers.
Today life is complex. We have so many demands on ourselves from those around us at work at home and at the hockey rink. We think that we simplify things, but we don’t. We end up with a blackberry and a filled outlook schedule. Meant to simplify things; but really it is enabling the over-complication of life. So we use technology to simplify our lives but all we are doing is adding to the load.

So how can you deal with all of this? How can you bring simplicity to your life? My wife tells me to simply do less, I over complicate things. Our boss tells us to deal with it and find a way to get it all done. So how do we say no and learn to get done less but get it done better? We need to make decisions and realize that we will not satisfy all the people all of the time. We need to determine the right balance. It is about being decisive and balancing all aspects while not over committing ourselves.

Data warehousing is a technology that I often say makes the complex simple, but often I see warehouses where the previous designers made the simple complex. Or DBA’s that have created such a complex database environments that they are the only ones who can maintain it. If you don’t want to get caught up in the complexity of the Oracle world I would encourage you to attend COLLABORATE 09 where we will take the complexity out and bring the simple in.