Came up with a satisfying definition of a complex system that I should have thought of years ago. A system is a complex system when fixing 1 bug on average causes 1 new bug to emerge somewhere else in the system. I call it the whack-a-mole complexity threshold.
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Replying to @vgr
Extremely good, I’m shocked I’ve never heard this articulated in a tweet
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I’ve seen simpler versions like “you hurt when you try to help”, taleb’s iatrogenics- system is too complex for simple-minded “fixing” - but “fixing one bug makes another” feels truthier & more nuanced on some dimension. In the “you can only choose where you want your bugs” sense
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(And I guess technically you don’t always know where - so you can choose where you *dont* want them, but the system is likely goofing off outside of the scope of your focus)
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Cmiiw but the other side of complex system management for me is the immovable system, where substantial input produces no discernible output.
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Excellent point. Autopoeitic self-healing behavior.
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