Complexity is a composition of well-structured and contextualised simplicities. It almost sounds like a paradox, and yet it is one of the most concrete things I have understood recently. And as often happens, two apparently very different contexts showed it to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those who know me know that structured video games are among my favourite cognitive recharging activities. Games like Worker and Resources: Soviet Republic, Farm Manager, Cities Skylines or Timberborn fascinate me not just for the gameplay itself but for the depth of the systems they hide. Soviet Republic in particular has a level of micro-management that few games reach, every production chain, every logistics flow, every decision ripples through everything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The mistake I was making was trying to master them regardless. Long sessions, enormous objectives, constant frustration. The exact opposite of the principle of simplicity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once I understood this I changed my approach. I started treating tutorials and campaigns as a training ground, focusing on one part at a time. A transport system. A production cycle. A supply chain. I solve that, get the micro-gratification, understand one piece of the whole. And gradually the eye trains itself to manage complex systems without being overwhelmed by them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Obvious in theory. Not obvious in practice. And here I have to laugh, because someone occasionally tells me “Luca has learned a new word and now he will repeat it forever”, and they already caught me with insight. Maybe I am just internalising it, maybe I repeat it too much, but self-irony helps. Either way, the principle of simplicity, a key word in the book I am writing and which you can find more about on LinkedIn, turned out to be valuable in ways I did not expect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second context arrived, as they say, out of nowhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was working on an AI flow experiment on the coding side, using Minecraft Java mods and Roblox games as a testing ground. In doing so I built a simple horror game inspired by the backrooms for Roblox. Basic, rough, made to test the workflow more than anything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had Marco try it. He was thrilled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On my way home he video called me. He had opened Roblox Studio and was asking me how to build something similar. The weekend carried on like that, him experimenting, me answering questions. Before, I used to tell him about these things and he would not listen. Now he builds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That enthusiasm reminded me of something fundamental. If you contextualise and apply simplicity you can create great things. A rough game built with accessible tools lit something in my son that hours of explanation had not. Because it was simple, concrete, immediate. Because he could see it working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We often aim directly at complexity, skip the steps, want the result before the journey. And so we create complexity for its own sake, which distorts thoughts and objectives instead of serving them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Real complexity, the kind that holds, is always a composition of well-structured simplicities. The most sophisticated systems I know, in work, in thinking, in games, are built on elementary foundations managed with precision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the next posts I will talk about how coding, AI and environments like Roblox or Minecraft Java can become a valuable testing ground, for us, for our children, and for the relationship between them and us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For now I stop here. With the satisfaction of someone who has seen a simple principle do great things, in a game of Soviet Republic and in a video call with his son.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Complexity is a composition of well-structured simplicities. It sounds like a paradox, and yet two very different contexts showed it to me: structured video games like Soviet Republic, where I learned to focus on one system at a time instead of trying to master everything at once, and an unexpected video call with Marco, thrilled after trying a rough game I had built with AI. <\/p>\n
Simplicity applied well creates great things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,112],"tags":[1461,1968,1728,1947,1552,1966,1970],"class_list":["post-453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-free-thoughts","category-pragmatism","tag-ai-en","tag-complexsystems","tag-criticalthinking","tag-microgratifications","tag-personalgrowth","tag-simplicity","tag-videogames"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lucainfante.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lucainfante.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lucainfante.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lucainfante.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lucainfante.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=453"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lucainfante.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":454,"href":"https:\/\/lucainfante.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions\/454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lucainfante.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lucainfante.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lucainfante.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}