## Persuasion Knob #7: Simplicity **One-sentence formulation:** *Simple ideas spread because they are easy to remember, repeat, and defend, not because they are complete or accurate.* ### Adams’ core observation Scott Adams notes that **simplicity beats accuracy in persuasion**. The human brain prefers models that are easy to hold and easy to share, even if they omit critical details. Simplicity does not persuade by depth. It persuades by **compressibility**. What can be easily summarized travels farther than what must be carefully explained. ### What simplicity actually is Simplicity is reduction. It: - Collapses complexity into slogans - Replaces tradeoffs with binaries - Substitutes narratives for mechanisms - Converts gradients into categories This makes ideas portable. An idea that fits on a bumper sticker will outperform one that requires a white paper. ### Why simplicity works Complexity creates friction. Under complexity: - Attention drops - Confidence erodes - Repetition fails - Social sharing stops Simplicity removes friction and increases velocity. Adams’ point is not that people are stupid—it’s that **attention is scarce**. ### The danger of oversimplification Simplicity often disguises: - Missing assumptions - Hidden costs - False dichotomies - Misplaced causality Because simple ideas feel clear, they create false confidence. Once a simple explanation is adopted, more accurate explanations feel like excuses or obfuscation. ### Ethical ambiguity Simplicity can be used to: - Teach fundamentals - Communicate across skill gaps - Align large groups quickly But it can also be used to: - Replace understanding with slogans - Polarize debates - Shut down inquiry - Justify force Adams emphasizes that simplicity is not truth—it is **transmission efficiency**. ### Why recognizing simplicity matters When an idea feels especially satisfying or obvious, it is worth asking: - What was removed to make this so clean? - What tradeoffs are being hidden? - What complexity is being ignored? Clarity is not completeness. ### Why this knob follows repetition Repetition strengthens whatever is repeated. Simplicity determines what *can* be repeated. Only simple ideas survive saturation. This is why complex truths are fragile in mass discourse. ### The compounding effect Simplicity stacks aggressively with: - Fear (simple threats) - Contrast (simple choices) - Novelty (simple surprises) - Repetition (simple slogans) Together, they explain why bad ideas often outcompete better ones. The final persuasion knob completes the set by exploiting explanation itself. View quoted note →

As a former Special Forces Warrant Officer with multiple rotations running counterinsurgency ops—both hunting insurgents and trying to separate them from sympathetic populations—I’ve seen organized resistance up close. From Anbar to Helmand, the pattern is familiar: spotters, cutouts, dead drops (or modern equivalents), disciplined comms, role specialization, and a willingness to absorb casualties while bleeding the stronger force slowly. What’s unfolding in Minneapolis right now isn’t “protest.” It’s low-level insurgency infrastructure, built by people who’ve clearly studied the playbook. Signal groups at 1,000-member cap per zone. Dedicated roles: mobile chasers, plate checkers logging vehicle data into shared databases, 24/7 dispatch nodes vectoring assets, SALUTE-style reporting (Size, Activity, Location, Unit, Time, Equipment) on suspected federal vehicles. Daily chat rotations and timed deletions to frustrate forensic recovery. Vetting processes for new joiners. Mutual aid from sympathetic locals (teachers providing cover, possible PD tip-offs on license plate lookups). Home-base coordination points. Rapid escalation from observation to physical obstruction—or worse. This isn’t spontaneous outrage. This is C2 (command and control) with redundancy, OPSEC hygiene, and task organization that would make a SF team sergeant nod in recognition. Replace “ICE agents” with “occupying coalition forces” and the structure maps almost 1:1 to early-stage urban cells we hunted in the mid-2000s. The most sobering part? It’s domestic. Funded, trained (somewhere), and directed by people who live in the same country they’re trying to paralyze law enforcement in. When your own citizens build and operate this level of parallel intelligence and rapid-response network against federal officers—complete with doxxing, vehicle pursuits, and harassment that’s already turned lethal—you’re no longer dealing with civil disobedience. You’re facing a distributed resistance that’s learned the lessons of successful insurgencies: stay below the kinetic threshold most of the time, force over-reaction when possible, maintain popular support through narrative, and never present a single center of gravity. I spent years training partner forces to dismantle exactly this kind of apparatus. Now pieces of it are standing up in American cities, enabled by elements of local government and civil society. That should keep every thinking American awake at night. Not because I want escalation. But because history shows these things don’t de-escalate on their own once the infrastructure exists and the cadre believe they’re winning the information war. We either recognize what we’re actually looking at—or we pretend it’s still just “activism” until the structures harden and spread. Your call, America. But from where I sit, this isn’t January 2026 politics anymore. It’s phase one of something we’ve spent decades trying to keep off our own soil. https://xcancel.com/Schwalm5132 11:03 AM · Jan 25, 2026 7.8M Views https://xcancel.com/Schwalm5132/status/2015470661490057540 View quoted note →