The Case for Overcomplicating Things

I have a tendency to overcomplicate things. At least, that is probably how it appears from the outside. But for me, I usually have to do things the “hard way” if I want them to work at all.

For example, I grouped my garden into separate beds based on companion planting, water needs, shade requirements, and a variety of other factors. That left a lot of space in between them that still isn’t completely weeded and is taking a massive amount of time.

But all of that was necessary if I wanted to see what works and what doesn’t. I already know that I can’t plant anything close to the quince-from-hell, and that apparently I can kill peppermint where I intentionally planted it, but not the peppermint that insists on growing literally everywhere else in the garden.

I have notebooks for language learning. I keep lists of cocktail ideas. I have spent an unreasonable amount of time designing printables. I make tables, draw diagrams, and write down things that many people would simply trust themselves to remember.

I don’t think the complexity is the problem. I think it is how I learn.

I need to do things in a way that helps me not only learn, but remember what I learned and how I learned it.

Paying attention applies to just about everything I do instead of blindly hoping for success.

I have always felt the need to break things down and figure out how they work. I have never been able to simply memorize phrases and words in other languages because I need to know why something is spelled one way with one pronoun and differently when the pronoun changes.

I enjoy creating systems. I love finding patterns. That might mean I have more notebooks than most people find necessary.

Some days I will spend hours writing down Norwegian grammar rules and lists of reflexive verbs. Other days I will spend hours drawing diagrams of different baseball pitches.

What looks complicated to others simply feels interesting to me.

The goal was never perfection.

It was understanding.

And if understanding occasionally requires a little overcomplication, I think that’s a trade-off worth making.