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" This tension between interdependencies and adaptability is a deep feature of networks and profoundly affects many types of systems. Software designers see it when a program becomes so complex that any enhancement or bug fix introduces five new bugs. Architects see it when a client asks them to move a wall just one foot, and it has knock-on effects that send the project's cost sky-high. Some biologists, such as Stuart Kauffman, believe that this tension creates upper limits on the complexity of organisms. In economic organizations, there is a clear trade-off between the benefits of scale and the coordination costs and constraints created by complexity. "

, The Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, And the Radical Remaking of Economics


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 quote : This tension between interdependencies and adaptability is a deep feature of networks and profoundly affects many types of systems. Software designers see it when a program becomes so complex that any enhancement or bug fix introduces five new bugs. Architects see it when a client asks them to move a wall just one foot, and it has knock-on effects that send the project's cost sky-high. Some biologists, such as Stuart Kauffman, believe that this tension creates upper limits on the complexity of organisms. In economic organizations, there is a clear trade-off between the benefits of scale and the coordination costs and constraints created by complexity.