298 Quotes About Complexity

Complexity is perplexing unless you know how to see.

Complexity is not just a phenomenon, it can be perceived as a property of a system.

We’ve divided the world into us versus them—an ever-shrinking population of good people against bad ones. But it’s not a dichotomy. People can be doers of good in many circumstances. And they can be doers of bad in others. It’s true of all of us. We are not sufficiently described by the best thing we have ever done, nor are we sufficiently described by the worst thing we have ever done. We are all of it.

Complexity gets managed when the noise does not hide like in Brazilian jungles, but gets naked like in the African desert. Complexity is tackled without entanglements then.

I sat in a world of sorrow trying to figure things out. I couldn’t because the world isn’t supposed to be figured out. You’re not supposed to get it. You’re supposed to flow with it and things come or don’t. It’s that simple, but we think everything’s complex when it’s just sitting right in front of us.

All life is a complex of systems. Some creatures perform as networks (like mycelia), some as superorganisms (like ants and bees), some as individuals that cooperate (like humans, ravens, and wolves). But all living beings, as far as we know, have some kind of subjectivity that connects them to other subjectivities.

Etienne should be enthusiastically applauded for his innovative thinking. (Tom Daschle, former U.S. Senator and Senate Majority Leader)

Complexity is not in our DNA. Our Constitution is legendary in its brevity and simplicity of purpose; our early inventors and industrialists thrived in making our world simpler and easier to live in; we won World War II with simple and very effective tools, and the Cold War because our market-based approach to economics was much more effective than central planning complexity.

Juhumuutlikkus tähendab seda, et tavalise matemaatilise statistika reeglid ei tööta. Näiteks kui lugeda, et tänaval vastu tuleva inimese sugu on juhuslik sõltumatu sündmus, siis kui me kohtaks igas sekundis kümmet inimest, kuluks saja järjestikuse mehe ootamiseks 200 miljardit korda kauem, kui on Universumi vanus. Ometi pole selle sündmuse realiseerumine sõjaväeparaadil mingi probleem.