Complexity Is Sometimes Unavoidable. Confusion Is Not.

In a remote village in Enugu State, I taught Basic Science and Basic Technology to junior secondary students.

The curriculum contained electricity, ecosystems, machines and materials. The children were not short of intelligence. They were often short of explanations that remembered where they were starting from.

That classroom taught me something: complexity is sometimes unavoidable. Confusion is not.

DNA is complex. A power grid is complex. So is a national budget, a software architecture or a doctrine of faith. Serious subjects have layers. But layers are not fog.

Some experts wear obscurity like ceremonial clothing. The audience leaves confused, and the speaker leaves feeling profound. Fog is not altitude.

Research on cognitive load shows that poor instructional design can consume mental capacity needed for learning. Jargon can do something similar: it forces the reader to spend strength opening the box before meeting the idea inside it.

This does not mean every truth must be reduced to a slogan. Simplicity can also lie. A map becomes useless when the desire for neatness removes the roads.

Clarity is different. Clarity preserves complexity while showing people where to stand.

A good teacher does not remove the mountain. He marks the path. A good scientist explains the machinery without pretending it has only one gear. A good developer builds an interface that does not require its creator standing beside it. A good government writes policy citizens can understand before demanding obedience.

Confusion becomes especially dangerous when power benefits from it. Contracts become forests. Budgets become incantations. Terms of service become legal wallpaper. People agree to what they cannot read and obey what no one has explained.

Sometimes complexity is real. Sometimes it is camouflage.

The ethical question is simple: after you have understood something, do you build a door for others—or use the wall as evidence that you belong inside?

My students did not need the universe emptied of difficulty. They needed its difficult parts arranged with honesty.

If people must remain confused for you to remain impressive, you are not explaining the subject.

You are renting authority from darkness.

Abraham Ikongshul Ashindortiang

Sources:

John Sweller: Cognitive Load During Problem Solving—Effects on Learning

Nature Human Behaviour: How Laypeople Evaluate Scientific Explanations Containing Jargon