Have you heard of the Paperwork Reduction Act? Its goal, when it was drafted in 1980, was to simplify the bureaucratic process, so less time and paperwork would be needed (pretty self-explanatory, right?). It’s been in effect for about 20 years now, helping to separate the wheat from the chaff to help citizens. When it was first introduced, Americans spent a combined total of over one billion hours on government paperwork per year. That was from 1980-1981. And from 2009-2010, Americans only spent about 9.9 billion hours on government paperwork.
Whoops.
There is hope, though! All you need to do is fill out Standard Form 152 – the official government form for clearing or cancelling other forms.* Wait, what?!
Everyone strives for simplicity in their lives, be it in their careers, social connections, purchases or lifestyles. But things can get complicated very quickly.
The “intrinsically comprehensible” iPhone has run into some problems with its newest version in that it loses the “phone” part as soon as you pick it up. Designers selling minimalist furniture charge thousands of dollars for their designs. Oh, and the people at Starbucks look at you like you’re wearing your underwear on the outside of your pants when you ask for a “small coffee.” I tell ya, simplicity ain’t what it used to be.
Our lives are dictated by dozens (or hundreds, or thousands) of social interactions every day; we use machines so complex that most people don’t know how the hardware itself works. We race around from place to place, always rushing, always looking for a way to remove the clutter. People who market themselves as Feng Shui masters or professional organizers rake in boatloads of money helping people to downsize their lives. Of course, setting appointments and accomplishing the simplification requires a lot of time, organization, and even a bit of stress.
Thoreau would not be pleased.
But clutter isn’t all bad; with more choices and outlets for our day-to-day lives, we’re able to personalize ourselves and our experiences more than ever before. Individuals are truly becoming individuals in a grander sense, thanks to a host of options for hobbies, entertainment, fashion, careers, and even diets. We form small tribes (or tribelets, if you will) based on these different cultural factions. And so, we find simplicity in our interactions through shared interests, as diverse as they may be.
Which brings us to Toki Pona.
Toki Pona was created in the early 2000s as a minimal language. It only has 123 root words (meaning you might have to talk around other words), which means that you could probably become fluent in about 2 weeks. But besides the obvious advantage of having a complete secret language to share with friends, what’s another advantage to simplifying language like this?
You’ll actually be able to understand and communicate more clearly.
Let’s throw out the issue of spelling errors and apostrophe mangling and other grammar issues. Let’s forgo the implications of complex descriptors due to the small number of root words. Let’s forget that the limited number of words might cause it to be a dead language. Instead, let’s focus on what it is: a way to get around a lot of the confusion of speaking.
Instead of figuring out the most tactful way to ask someone to turn their music down because you’re trying to sleep, you’re limited to only one way to do so. Instead of fluttering around on figuring out how to ask someone out to dinner, you’ve only got a couple of choices. It’s a more stripped-down and less face punch-inciting version of radical honesty. And instead of using NLP to try to force an underlying message, one must be direct.
Plus, if you and a few friends learn it, you can have your own super-secret language to share between you. And I don’t know about you, but I always wanted one of those.
If we want to simplify our lives, maybe a good place to start is with communication. As one might say in Toki Pona, ona pona li kama. It’s a good start.
*Facts taken from Wikipedia (linked above) and this article from Cracked.com
