Spiralling towards clarity

Something I value highly is clarity. A bit like “making complex simple,” but not quite. Some things are complex, and stay complex. But it’s usually possible to keep becoming more clear. It’s usually possibly to see where the complex pieces (and simple pieces) are, and how to work with the system rather than against it.

I’ve found a good way to approach this ever-increasing clarity is in a spiral. An iterative process that loops back around on itself, revisiting previous bits with new insights.

A nice visual metaphor for this a metal spring, slightly stretched. Looked at end-on, it looks like a circle, like repetitions of the same thing. But looked at from the side, we can see that there’s progress.

Added 2023-12-06.