Towards the end of 2025, after our relationship with Tasha survived many travels, laughs, adventures and disagreements, I set out to find an engagement ring. After looking at dozens of artisans online aiming to find the one matching some... undefined and unexisting standard, I seriously started considering the following scheme: 1. Ask my friend Denis, who lives in Moscow, to design the ring 2. Have him find someone to make it 3. Find someone planning a trip there to pick it up I was stuck in an acute episode of yak shaving (example [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbSehcT19u0)). This obviously matters to me, and I got stuck seeking solutions that felt symmetrically important. One morning, however, as I was going to the bakery, I saw the small jewelry store around the corner that I had passed countless time before without stopping. I checked it on Google maps. The reviews were excellent. I was welcomed into the shop by a friendly and talented artisan. The ~~perfect~~ simplest ring, stripped of anything superfluous, immediately caught my eye. I bought the ring on the spot. We're engaged. Simple as that.  There and then I realized I had been trying to tackle complexity with complexity. Until then, I held two seemingly contradictory beliefs: - You should work on the most important thing you control - You make the simplest available step I had been completely missing the point. One without the other is no more than a disjointed puppet. Take convoluted steps to work on the most important thing, and chances are you won't get up from the couch. Take the simplest step in any direction, and chances are you'll end up on the couch anyway. Purpose and progress are but two sides of the same coin. "Deep Simplicity" by John Gribbin had already nudged me to ponder the intricate relationship between simplicity and complexity. Yet those ideas had stayed domain-dependent, unhatched. Complex behavior arises from simple rules. Working on the simple bits is what allows the complex to appear. Every year, I chose a trait to work on. 2024 was about clarity. 2025 was about equanimity. 2026 is about simplicity. I want to make progress and contribute to the world instead of fighting the windmills of my mind. And this means taking the smallest stabs possible, one at a time, while watching life unfold without even trying to predict it. I want to lead a simple life.