Keep It Simple!

A few months ago, I got an e-mail from my guru Dave Trott to edit a spreadsheet.

There were many other invitees in the loop.

A few minutes later I got another email from him, informing everyone in the loop that his account has been hacked and to delete the invitation email.

Yesterday, I received a similar kind of invitation from him.

I took a screenshot of that email and forwarded to him in a tweet asking whether his account has
been hacked again?

He replied to my tweet – ‘THANKS, THE FACT THAT THEY CAN’T SPELL MY NAME IS A CLUE.’

I opened the screenshot and found that they have mispronounced Dave Trott as Dave Trot.

I overlooked that earlier.

I have read that invitation carefully, but I did not pay any attention to his name getting misspelled.

I was hypnotized by complexity.

This reminded me of SILVER BLAZE – a Sherlock Holmes short story written by Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson arrive at King’s Pyland to investigate the disappearance of the
super racehorse Silver Blaze and the murder of its trainer, John Straker.

The horse belongs to one Colonel Ross.

John Straker was a long time associate of Ross, and Silver Blaze was a favorite horse for an
upcoming race.

To protect Silver Blaze, Ross had hired a guard Ned Hunter and a dog to keep an eye on the stable.

On a frightful night, Ned Hunter had been drugged by a sedative added to his dinner.

And before these incidents of crime took place, a sheep on Ross farm had got lame. The reason was
unknown.

Straker body was found in a desolated location, far away from the stable.

The investigations revealed that he was hit hard on his skull which caused his death.

There was a deep cut on his thigh.

A cataract knife was found at the crime scene.

Straker coat was found draped over a bush.

And a cravat was found in Straker’s hand which belongs to a bookie Fitzroy Simpson.

On the day of this ugly incident, Simpson had come to King’s Pyland to gather information about
Silver Blaze and other horses.

He was arrested by Inspector Gregory of Scotland Yard on the criminal charges for kidnapping Silver
Blaze and the murder of John Straker.

Inspector Gregory theory was – Simpson had stolen Silver Blaze from the stable.

While he was running away, Straker caught him on the moor.

A scuffle took place, and Simpson hit Straker on the head with his heavy stick.

Then he ran away with the horse and hid it someplace.

But Sherlock Holmes was not satisfied with Gregory theory.

He started his investigations from a different angle.

And he came to a conclusion that it was John Straker who was kidnapping the horse.

He was in debt because his secret second wife was a heavy spender.

To repay the loan he took hefty money from a rival party to injure Silver Blaze.

He took the horse to an isolated location to make Silver Blaze lame by cutting him with the cataract
knife.

He had earlier tried this experiment on the sheep and made it lame.

But his plan backfired.

Before he can inflict the wound, the horse kicked him on his head.

Straker died on the spot and the horse ran away.

The horse was captured by a neighboring stable owner who painted it to make it look like one of
his own.

What Sherlock Holmes did was that he asked a simple question.

The guard Ned Hunter was drugged and unconscious; so he could not take any action when the
culprit came to the stable to kidnap Silver Blaze.

But why the DOG did not bark and alarmed its owner (Ross) and other employees?

The dog was not drugged.

The dog did not bark, because it knew John Straker.

GREGORY (SCOTLAND YARD DETECTIVE): "IS THERE ANY OTHER POINT TO WHICH YOU WOULD
WISH TO DRAW MY ATTENTION?"
HOLMES: "TO THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME."
GREGORY: "THE DOG DID NOTHING IN THE NIGHT-TIME."
HOLMES: "THAT WAS THE CURIOUS INCIDENT."

We often ignore or overlook the simple facts, because we find it useless.

We are hypnotized by complexity.

But the simple facts are actually the key to solve complex problems.