"Complex systems..."

This Sunday's reflection:

"Complex systems are full of interdependencies -- hard to detect -- and nonlinear responses. 'Nonlinear' means that when you double the dose of say, a medication, or when you double the number of employees in a factory, you don't get twice the initial effect, but rather a lot more or a lot less. Two weekends in Philadelphia are not twice as pleasant as a single one -- I've tried. When the response is plotted on a graph, it does not show as a straight line ('linear'), rather as a curve. In such environments, simple causal associations are misplaced; it is hard to see how things work by looking at single parts."

-- Nassim Taleb in "Antifragile"