298 Quotes About Complexity

Sufficiently simple natural structures are predictable but uncontrollable, whereas sufficiently complex symbolic descriptions are controllable but unpredictable.

[Isaiah] Berlin was aware that when people feel lost in the complicated labyrinth of life, with its unsolvable tensions and paradoxes, they attempt to save themselves by trying to simplify and reduce reality to a few manageable patterns and clear ideas. Yet, they can never change the fact that life is a mixture of complexity and perplexity, and the more possibilities we are confronted with, the more perplexed and challenged we are likely to be.

As our complexity grows, we get veiled from the simplicity of life itself.

The human brain is by far the most complex physical object known to us in the entire cosmos.

Look at the crowd. They all agree on some simple answer to a complex problem. You know in your gut that they are wrong, even if the situation does not break down into a 100% good party versus a 100% bad party. Their assertions, cloaked in positivity, reek of denial and death to the instinct in your gut and heart.

When everyone says the same thing about some complex topic, what should come to your mind is, 'wait a minute, nothing can be that simple, something's wrong.' That's the immediate light that should go off in your brain when you ever hear unanimity on some complex topic." (The Ezra Klein Show 2021/04/23)

How do you know who you are?After all, you are complex beyond your own understanding; more complex than anything else that exists, excepting other people; complex beyond belief.

Our work is to integrate and eventually transcend darkness and light altogether by holding them equally in a state of interconnection.

The rage for 'identity' too often bespeaks a preference for simplicity rather than for complexity.