Keeping Things Simple

Seems like a bunch of people are picking up on Ben Casnocha's thoughts of things that society overcomplicates.  His point is that even though these things may be difficult to do, they are nonetheless simple.  Here's his list:

1. Losing Weight -- There are only two things to remember: Eat less and exercise more. If people followed these two, basic rules, I guarantee you'd lose weight. Instead, people read books and watch videos and read studies and adopt trendy diets...

2. Becoming a Better Writer -- Read more and write more. Period. Instead people buy books on writing, take writing classes, and do most of their "writing" in PowerPoint...

3. Becoming a Better Entrepreneur -- Be an entrepreneur. Do entrepreneurship. You may mess up, but I guarantee that by the act of doing (and failing, or succeeding) you'll become a better entrepreneur. Instead prospecitve entrepreneurs think about it, read books about it, go to conferences, mull it over....

4. Being a Good Parent -- Parents should offer love and freedom (emotionally) and room and board (physically). Everything else is trivial. But the massive parenting industry, by perpeutating the "nurture" myth, now says the job includes Baby Einstein cards, daily note-taking on the mood swings of your child, endless tutors, and on and on and on...

Here's a few things I'd add:

1) Staying in Touch With Friends and Family -- Take time out to write and/or call.  Initiate contact and respond when others contact you.  Spend time together when possible, even if it's just a quick meal together.  Letting people know you care enough to contact them and/or give your time to them means a lot to most people.  Even short e-mails or text messages can mean a lot and take up nearly zero time.

2) Maintaining Good Finances -- Spend less than you earn.  Period.  Save first and then live off of what's left.

3) Making Time to Read -- Take a book with you to work to read at lunch.  Spend five minutes before going to bed reading a book you've picked out.  Reading only five pages a day will get you through over 1800 pages in a year.  That's nine 200 page books!

Tyler Cowen, Bryan Caplan, and Fabio Rojas also chime in.

Does anyone else have anything they'd like to add?