nature-of-complex-systems.md

Nature of complex systems

Concepts

• sharp-end vs. blunt-end
• practitioner actions as gambles
• coping with complexity
• robust yet fragile
• drift
• strange loops
• dark debt
• well-adapted, under-adapted, over-adapted
• decompensation, working at cross-purposes, getting stuck in outdated behaviors

Readings

• How complex systems fail
• Basic Patterns in How Adaptive Systems Fail
• STELLA: Report from the SNAFUcatchers Workshop on Coping with Complexity
• Highly Optimized Tolerance: Robustness and Design in Complex Systems
• Drift into failure