Friday, March 23, 2012

Complexity

I brought this topic to the Loose Bloggers Consortium.  My reasons were simple …

einstein_patentoffice

Many people mistake the idea of complexity with the measure of intelligence.  The more complex, the more intelligent, right?

Uh, not quite.  Scientists and programmers understand that complexity is a necessary evil along the way.  As man’s reach exceeds his grasp, often his only method of exploration and explanation is complex.  As man’s grasp expands to his former reach, the complex gives way to the true goal, elegance!

Einstein said it well when he said that things should be made as simple as possible … but no simpler!  Simple as possible, but no simpler representation is elegance.  It is the Golden Path, The Way, the Tao.

To say that energy and mass are equivalent and then fill a chalkboard with their equations demonstrating this is complex.  But, this is what is elegant:

E = mc2

Check out the other Consortium writers topic takes on the right side of this page.  Truly a collection of elegant writers and thinkers.

9 comments:

  1. Dang, you just destroyed the theory I presented in my post. :)

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  2. We are not all Einsteins are we? On my tours of the LBC posts, I find that we are complexity personified!

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  3. I think I recognise that suit! ;)

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  4. Fossil this came to me while responding to Delerious -

    Simplicity is throwing a curveball
    Complexity is explaining why a curveball curves
    Elegance is throwing that curveball past the other teams cleanup hitter with the bases loaded, 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth and the count full.

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    Replies
    1. Shackman, I think that is perfectly said. It captures both essence and literal truth.

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  5. I like the concept of elegance--something difficult to define.

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