Into a bouquet of trivial irritants

What problem are you overcomplicating?

How could you reframe your situation so the emotional weight is less of a burden?

I think it all goes back to control. After all, fear of losing control is tied to our evolutionary history. That’s how our species historically ensured safety and survival, so naturally, it remains high on our current list of anxieties.

That’s what I like about right sizing a problem. Once you break down an issue to its most basic elements, you can see it more clearly and manageably.

Cartoonists and comedians are masters at this. Professional simplifiers. They strip out, no pun intended, all the unnecessary noise from a situation until there’s nothing left but absurd yet true essence.

That’s why so many comedy clubs have the word strip in the title. It’s got nothing to do with nudity, sad to say, but it’s a nod to the comedic process of stripping down situations to their essentials.

Funny papers are the same. Cartoonists draw comic strips, not only because of the sequence of drawings in boxes that tell a story or a joke; but because complex ideas are distilled into their most humorous and poignant elements.

Both types of artists achieve this feat of simplification in only a short sentence.

And any of us can do the same, with the right training. If you want to become a better stripper, here’s how to do it.

Identify the core issue.
Decompose the problem into smaller parts.
Remove the extraneous details.
Simplify the language so it’s clear and straightforward.
Focus on the most critical and relatable aspects.

Seinfeld remains the world heavyweight champion of this approach. To quote my favorite interview on his creative process, in his jokes he often arranges life’s messy confusions, shrewdly and immaculately, into a bouquet of trivial irritants.

Even that sentence itself is pure stripper gold. Jerry is the master of sifting through his thoughts and refining his ideas systematically. By isolating the core elements and iterating on them, he achieves a polished final product.

There’s no reason we can’t all do the same.

How could you reframe your situation so the emotional weight is less of a burden?