I spent 5 1/2 hours yesterday building an elaborate and intricate financial model in Excel. Buggy. Incomplete. But elegantly conceived and I was proud of myself and my brilliance.
I probably have another full day needed to make it workable and presentable.
Today on paper I came up with a simpler way to solve the same problem. Two orders of magnitude easier to understand, and two orders of magnitude easier for Management to implement.
(Complex system of dividing up a lot of money amongst a lot of heirs. “Fairly.”)
The point of this note is to show that first I had to get rid of my overly-complicated ideas to see the simple solution.
And the simple solution is better. It is better for the person whose trust will contain these allocation and distribution rules—he will understand and fine-tune his choices because the trade-offs are visible, not hidden in complexity. The trustee will know what to do When The Time Comes because the marching orders are simple and easily executed.
Those 5.5 hours spent in building a model that I have thrown away were not in vain.
Simple solutions are expensive to discover. You have to live through the suck to get them.