#complexity

Human beings, viewed as behaving systems, are quite simple. The apparent complexity of our behavior over time is largely a reflection of the complexity of the environment in which we find ourselves. ↗

— Herbert Simon

#behaving #behavior #beings #complexity #environment

What we call 'evil' doesn't necessarily deserve any kind of respect or understanding, by any means; it just deserves an acknowledgement of its complexity so we can better understand it - so we can help prevent it. ↗

— Bryan Singer

#any #better #call #complexity #deserve

You can drain the life and nuances and complexity out of things by homogenizing them to make everything harmoniously dull, flat, conflict-free, strife-free. ↗

— Gary Ross

#drain #dull #everything #flat #harmoniously

In literature, too, we admire prose in which a small and astutely arranged set of words has been constructed to carry a large consignment of ideas. 'We all have strength enough to bear the misfortunes of others,' writes La Rochefoucauld in an aphorism which transports us with an energy and exactitude comparable to that of Maillard bridge. The Swiss engineer reduces the number of supports just as the French writer compacts into a single line what lesser minds might have taken pages to express. We delight in complexity to which genius has lent an appearance of simplicity. (p 207) ↗

— Alain de Botton

#engineering #literature #simplicity #words #writing

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction. ↗

— E.F. Schumacher

#elegance #genius #inspirational #simplicity #violence

Government succeeds by failing. ↗

— L.K. Samuels

#complexity-science #economics #politics #science

The sheer complexity of writing a play always had dazzled me. In an effort to understand it, I became a critic. ↗

— Kenneth Tynan

#became #complexity #critic #effort #had

The intellectual evolution of the race consists in an increase in the number, delicacy, complexity, permanence and speed of formation of such associations. ↗

— Edward Thorndike

#complexity #consists #delicacy #evolution #formation

And so from that, I've always been fascinated with the idea that complexity can come out of such simplicity. ↗

— Will Wright

#been #come #complexity #fascinated #i

A graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding. ↗

— William Gibson

#city #clusters #complexity #computer #constellations