Conversation

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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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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