The Complexity Postulates

Complexity = the  variable effect

Take the case of figuring out the price of oil or commodities. 

In a non volatile world, all one would have to do is forecast the increase in demand and the supply and use basic mathematics to come up with a price - say one year down the line. 

But if you were to throw into the mix the likely hood of a war or a radical policy change in support of hybrid fuels or a double dip recession in a part of the world, a relative slowdown in the other and complex financial trading - then the task becomes unfathomably difficult. 

That is to say :: The more the variables in a problem, the bigger challenge it poses for humans with their knowledge and their accessories to compute. And hence by definition it is complex. 

Now that the definition is out of the way, let me state what I believe are the postulates of complexity :

• Complexity is always relative. 
• Complexity has but 2 shapes - The Depth and The Breadth
• When standalone components of any kind start interacting, the complexity shape changes from depth to breadth (Visualize a T)

The reason I was contemplating on complexity is because it appeared to me that most of us have successfully stereotyped it.

TechStuff had a podcast on Dennis Ritchie and had a passing remark on Steve Jobs standing on the shoulder of Dennis Ritchie. While one couldn't fault the logic, unless I was tone deaf I couldn't have missed the condescension of the certain geek cults towards Steve.  

I'm not an Apple fan boy so I will not lose objectivity on the subject of Steve Jobs, but for me Steve and Dennis cracked the 2 different shapes of complexity. 

While Dennis defined the digital era by defining the depth of the software stack - The operating system - and it's language. Steve redefined marketing and made digital devices ubiquitous along the breadth of the world. The decision on which one is a more complex problem is not that straightforward as it's made out to be. There are considerable variables for both problems and while Ritchie's genius was in his intellect, Steve's genius was in his convictions and execution. I can imagine a re-spin on the "Standing on giants" narrative to a "Making Technology useful" - which is why I find this whole comparison banal. 

Another example of the complexity shape change is between Product based IT companies to Service based one's. While Product Based companies develop technology, service based companies connect and orchestrate them to develop applications that implement services for end users. A move from products to services consequently does not mean a movement from a high complexity work to a lower one as much as it means a move from the depth complexity to the breadth. 

This nuance has been of particular use to me as I try to figure out the difference in challenges that come along with this shape change!