I was awake late last night watching a cool mini-series on Netflix about train robbers. Apparently it was based on true events, Bruce Reynolds and that business in the sixties about him and his gang taking the postal train money. Very entertaining to be able to romanticize about criminals. I couldn’t help but laugh though when I heard a great quote from one of the gang members, “Anyone can be complicated. Simplicity, now that’s hard”.

I instantly thought about my saddle, my rope bags, my climbing style, my truck, my business. Do I need less? Can I operate with fewer moving parts? Where can I shed the weight? Am I making things too complicated? Now, I’ve heard this philosophy in other forms before and from other characters, but the idea of simplicity as being challenging is always so fascinating because its so true. Overthinking things can often get us mired down with added weight that isn’t necessarily making things more efficient.

I’m often guilty of over-engineering many things from rigging schemes to my rope angles to the way I take my lunch breaks. It’s something that plagues all of the world’s tinkerers. We take on jobs that aren’t meant for us logistically, we buy tools we may not really need, we get in over our head. Then things get messy.

Funny enough, the train robbers go on to get made on the basis of leaving a sloppy hideout after the heist. Finger prints, clothes, hair; unbelievably messy from a criminal standpoint. The one guy with the one job to do of a spotless clean up didn’t do his job. And as they say, the rest is history.

The clean-up. Ah the clean up. The robbers got excited, it was more money than they expected, they got twitchy, they rushed and they got caught because someone didn’t clean up. A simple mistake. All that planning and execution and energy and someone forgot to wipe the place down!

I feel strange trying to compare robbing trains and arboriculture contracting, but it’s very convenient in this case. It’s only natural to see ourselves in others, to project our own lives onto the ones of others. Especially in the movies. But here I was thinking again of jobs I had to go back to because of something I forgot. We make out good, overlook something and then end up just breaking even, or even worse, we lose out.  You could have the finest operation dealing with the most majestic trees. The most wonderful climbing and awareness so that the plan goes flawlessly. The smoothest rigging, and the most strenuous brush dragging. But if you leave a few piles of chips and some oil stain on the driveway, you’re getting called back. You had the money, and you lost it.

The point here is that simplicity is not easy. You think it is, but it isn’t. Get the job, climb the tree, cut the limbs, chip the brush, drag the rake, get the money. Right? Well, at least I know robbing trains isn’t a viable alternative.