The Midwit Method
From Strategic Complexity by Ace Eddleman
The Midwit Method is the heuristic I reach for whenever I’m drowning in complexity: take a breath, delete as much complexity from the problem as you can, and then do something that tests what you think you know against the real world.
Where the name comes from
It’s named after the midwit meme: a bell curve of IQ with the simpleton on the left, the Jedi on the right and the average “midwit” in the middle. The simpleton and the Jedi reach the same simple answer. One gets there on instinct, the other by aggressively filtering for what matters. Only the midwit, buried in information, overcomplicates it.
Investing is the classic case. Simpletons look at day-trading returns versus index funds, shrug, and buy an index fund. Jedis refuse to play games where they don’t have a clear, sustainable edge, so they buy index funds too. Midwits plunge into the markets like chum for sharks.
How it works
- Step back and ask, “Am I the midwit here?” It takes some self-awareness and humility. Never ask it and you’ll land in the midwit attractor basin sooner or later.
- Delete complexity. Strip the problem to its most basic elements. Entropy keeps piling complexity debt onto every system, so this step never stops being necessary.
- Test it. Run an experiment, talk to an expert, put something small into the world. What matters is a genuine feedback mechanism.
Step three is what turns a meme into a method. Midwits are midwits mostly because they absorb information without getting feedback from reality. Picture someone who memorizes a book about Beijing and then calls themselves a Beijing expert without ever going there.
Where it breaks
Simplicity is no silver bullet. Some problems are irreducibly complex, and simpletons and Jedis both make big mistakes by shooting from the hip. The method won’t hand you the answer every time. In most cases it gets you closer to a sustainable solution, faster than another round of research would.
Two examples
- Launching a product into a crowded market: find what makes it genuinely different and hammer that point. The midwit drowns in market research and ships a campaign so cluttered with buzzwords that it loses its impact.
- A company crisis: if it’s a product problem, fix the product. If it’s a PR mess, address it directly. The midwit hires expensive consultants and issues convoluted statements that look good on paper and miss the core issue.
Common questions
Where does the name come from?
I named it in Strategic Complexity, in the chapter on simplicity. It builds on the internet’s midwit meme, the bell curve where the simpleton and the genius land on the same simple answer while the person in the middle overcomplicates everything.
Is the Midwit Method just “keep it simple”?
Simplifying is only the first half. The second half, testing your knowledge against the real world with an experiment or a conversation with an expert, is what stops simplification from turning into a confident wrong answer.
When shouldn’t you use it?
When the complexity is load-bearing. Pi is not 3, and no amount of simplifying will make it 3. Use the method to cut unnecessary complexity, not complexity the problem actually contains.