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Complexity Kills
This is a true story about two companies that made very different choices about how to handle complexity. I know it’s true because I worked at both.
Each was trying to grow, serve customers better, and scale. But they responded to complexity in opposite ways. One met it with clarity and constraint. The other met it with technical intricacy.
Both believed they were making smart choices. Only one built something that lasted.
Convolution / Evolution
The problem with unchecked and unintentional complexity is that it gradually narrows the 'solution space' — the range of future improvements, adjustments, or innovations that can be realistically pursued. Picture the solution space as a playground where designers and developers have room to explore new ideas and tackle emerging challenges. As complexity accumulates without careful management, walls begin to form in this playground, limiting the freedom to experiment and improve. Changes become riskier, and small tweaks can lead to a cascade of unintended consequences. The more convoluted the system, the fewer opportunities there are to introduce meaningful, impactful updates without further complicating the product or alienating users.
Even in this world, more things exist without our knowledge than with it and the order in creation which you see is that which you have put there, like a string in a maze, so that you shall not lose your way.