Complexity vs complication

This is a big one folks!

I can’t believe that I just now remembered to make this journal entry. It’s a core perspective and emerging understanding from my own transformation over the past few years.

People keep getting complexity confused with complication.

I saw a Substack Post suggesting that we are at “peak complexity” and that’s why everything feels so crazy these days.

I’m here to suggest that although complexity and complication may have very similar definitions in the dictionary, how each actually transpires in real life could not be more different.

No doubt, as things globalized, our lives have become more and more exposed to elements of complexity.

Here’s the difference though. We tend to prefer to avoid or ignore elements of complexity when it comes to design. So, we attempt to design around these inherent elements of complexity.

Unfortunately, as we attempt this we actually make our lives more complicated. In complex systems, the elements of complexity are inherent. That means they stick around waiting to be acknowledged and dealt with no matter how much we design around them. The resultant problems and symptoms in our daily work are the signs that the elements of inherent complexity are still there.

Things are actually crazy because of the levels of which the powers that be will go to attempt to deal with elements of inherent complexity as little as possible….thus all of the complicating work-arounds that are put in place…that cause just about every process or method to falter or flat out break, thus, creating multiple levels of complication.

What follows rampant complication is chaos.

If we were to deal directly with inherent elements of complexity, there would be no complicated workarounds and any extenuating issues from not dealing with them would be mostly avoided.

This is such a key perspective to adopt toward getting better at fixing and improving things in a much more effective….and much less complicating manner.