Not “just” the basics

Being smart, creative, and innovative is important, but ignoring the risks that come with it is irresponsible; Allowing yourself to make big mistakes is an inherent part of the creative process.

But I digress, I’m not here to talk about innovation, this is about the often undervalued simple approach. Despite the popularity of minimalism and the general idea that "perfection is achieved when there is nothing left to take away ", we often downplay the value of the basics in various disciplines by using the word "just".

In one of my favorite books, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", the author discusses this concept, arguing that by removing “just” from our language, we can better understand and accept the true meaning of sentences; “Just the basics” becomes “the fundamentals”.

The consistent execution of fundamentals builds the foundation that serves as a safety net to allow innovation in the long term.

Now, I'm focusing on the basics of my craft. The fine and detailed polish I strive for will come as I build “Just” the basics with care. I hope...

Why are you looking here?? well, With the important concept out of the way, it's time to talk about silly games.

For a long time I played League with my friends, and this year, despite not being good at the game, we tried to climb the competitive ranks less than a month before the end of the season. The strategy I chose and forced my friends to adopt was repeating the phrase “Just the basic” every couple of seconds as a meme and actually executing just the basics in the game, nothing fancy other than trying to not make mistakes. In the 10 games I played, we won 9; In an incredibly scientific effort, I stopped playing with them and saw the win streak end, it seems like there was a direct relation between playing a simple game of fundamentals and the statistical anomaly of a 90% win rate. If you came here for League tips: don’t die, farm well, and focus on objectives; Getting enough of an advantage will allow you to risk making mistakes.