Ed is a tax accountant. He helps small businesses manage their finances and file taxes. Every day, he sifts through many financial transactions. He also stays updated with constantly changing tax laws and gives advice to his clients.
Right before tax day, Ed worked on his own taxes. He inherited a small fortune last year, so he bought a bigger house. He then started renting his old home. Being a landlord meant he had to use some new tax forms. He didn’t know these forms well. Still, he spent a lot of time studying the relevant IRS publication to understand the rules. He spent a whole day working on his taxes and completed them to his satisfaction.
Happy with the progress he made on his taxes, Ed thought of another task. He wanted to install security cameras in his new home. Ed bought a camera system but hadn’t set it up because of tax season. Mounting the cameras around the house was easy enough. But, he still had to link the cameras to his home WiFi network.
Ed in Unfamiliar Territory
Ed had set up some WiFi devices before. So, he thought this would be easy. The camera manual had all the steps. He also had a YouTube video from Irene, a coworker. Irene had said she’d help, but Ed wanted to do it himself. He planned to read the camera manual closely and follow instructions. What could go wrong?
But as he read, he found unfamiliar technical terms. When he tried to set up his router, a message popped up. It said he needed to update the router’s firmware. Ed was surprised. He thought he’d just skip that step and continue with the task at hand.
Then, the manual told him about Port Forwarding on his router. He searched for it online and found out about UPnP and the danger of port forwarding. This made Ed very worried. What if he did something wrong and every prying eye on the internet could access his home network? That thought scared the heck out of him. moments later, he was on the phone with Irene. “Hey Irene, can you help me with my camera and router?” In the afternoon, Irene came over and fixed everything in 15 minutes.
Ed thanked Irene for helping him with the complicated network configuration. Irene graciously returned the compliment and thanked him for helping out with her own complicated income taxes.
Complicated Tasks
Did you see how Ed struggled with the “complicated” task? But Irene finished the task effortlessly. On the other hand, Irene finds taxes hard. Last year, she bought and sold stocks a lot because the stock market was volatile. But, when she tried to do her taxes, she got stuck. There was something called wash sales she didn’t understand. The IRS rules confused her and made her unsure of herself.
Many people feel like Irene about taxes. They find them complicated, complex, and confusing. It’s not just taxes. Many people feel the same about topics such as health care, insurance, and investing.
Welcome to A Simple Project
We all deal with things we think are complex, complicated, or confusing. I wondered, is there an easier way to deal with matters that confound us? I’ve thought about this for a long time. That’s why I started A Simple Project. This project wants to help people deal with the 3 Cs: Complicated, Complex, and Confusion. We focus on making things Simple.
Welcome to A Simple Project!
Next Steps
The task ahead is not easy. A Simple Project needs a solid conceptual foundation to support it. On top of this foundation, we need to create a framework that connects various parts of the 3 Cs. The following posts will show the outline and the structure of the project.
- A Simple Manifesto talks about what the project covers. It also shows how the project will change and get better over time.
- Conceptual Foundations talks about the concepts we use for this project.
- A Simple Framework shows how to link the 3 Cs to their solution, Simplicity, using the conceptual foundations.
- Here’s a bit About me so you know who started this project.
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