Every Math test I would take in high school ended that way – “Pencils Down” – as though I had created some masterful creation that was perfect and could no longer get any better. It was at this moment, when all hands were up that we’d look around at other people’s papers and either smile in agreement or become immediately dejected at having received the wrong answer. When leaving jobs, this is the new “Pencils…

You can sell “overcomplexity”, “you wouldn’t understand” and “don’t worry about its” for a period of time. But as soon as someone asks “Why?” – the selling period is over because now you need to explain “why it’s so complex”, “why no one else would understand” and “why, in fact, everyone should understand what is happening. Selling overcomplexity only works until someone says – “we could do it this way.”