I’m sure you’ve heard these phrases before. Heck, I’ve used similar verbiage myself. But I think that sometimes, simplicity and simple solutions ain’t so simple. Sometimes what you perceive as simple, might be because of your own perspective and experience. Let me tell you a little story that happened a little while back.
My son came home one day all spun up because of something going on with the pickup truck. He had used it that day, and the inside dome lights wouldn’t turn off. So he opened up his internet browser and began searching for a possible solution. After looking up several options that seemed plausible, he came to me explaining what had happened.
As we began walking to the truck, he started sharing several of the potential issues that could be the cause and possible fixes. And to be honest, all of them sounded like legitimate possibilities. However, I kept quiet as we continued to approach the truck, listening to what he had found.
You see, of all of the possible solutions, there was one I hadn’t heard him mention. One that I believed to be the most simple possible solution.
You see, my truck has a rolling switch that adjusts the brightness of the interior lights, and if rolled all of the way up, it turns on the dome lights like a switch. And so as my son continued with what he had learned (some of which was tracing electrical lines and such) I opened the door, rolled the switch down and switched off the dome lights.
Now, I obviously have more life experience than my son. And those experiences give me insight and perspective that he has yet to develop. And simply switching off the lights very well may not have worked which would have led to further investigation and my son’s research very well may have been needed.
However, starting with attempting to switch off the light would have solved the problem, and avoided the stress and frustration he experienced. I of course relayed this to him and explained that starting with the most basic solution should be tried first. Because sometimes, it really is as simple as that.
