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The Law of Conservation of Complexity, Hacker News

Original Formulation (ca. 2004)

“Every application has an inherent amount of irreducible complexity. The only question is: Who will have to deal with it — the user, the application developer, or the platform developer? ”

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    BulletBullet “In this case, the complexity of managing the translation of object references [when moving the object to/from disk], is moved out of the hands of the programmer and into the hands of the system. The complexity is not eliminated, but rather moved around so that the programmers efforts are focused on the application problem. ” -“ Object Databases in Action: Technology and Application ”by Tim Andrews ) , Chapter 4 of Bullet Information Technology in Action: Trends and Perspectives Bullet, edited by Richard Y. Wang

  • , pp. – 224, February 2006                                      
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    BulletBullet “The law of conservation of complexity serves as a balance to the Pattern Priesthood. It becomes important to select patterns which contain enough substance as to be worth the effort, but at the same time are not so complex that only the elite understand them. ” – (The The Patterns Handbook: Techniques, Strategies, and Applications by by Linda Rising , p. 728, June , .

                                         

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    BulletBullet “Given … that we will continue to reduce the proportion of complexity … that we expose to the user, we may expect that the difficulty and complexity of our own tasks … will only increase over time. ” –

  • blog post (

  • by
  • ) Bruce Tognazzini , , September, 2006                                      
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    BulletBullet “The goal of the SAP CAF is to shift as much of the complexity of developing a composite application as possible away from programmers and onto the tool itself. ” – SAP NetWeaver For Dummies (Bullet) BulletBullet Dan Woods and Bullet Jeffrey Word

  • Bullet, p. , May 7,


                                         

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    BulletBullet “With the transition rig [an adaptive sail configuration], complexity has moved from the use of the product to the design and construction. In many cases, this is a desirable trade-off, especially for mature products, whether they are software interfaces, physical controls, or even web sites. ” – Bullet by Bullet David Bishop , January 55, 2008; retold in Trillions : Thriving in the Emerging Information Ecology

  • by
  • Peter Lucas
  • , Bullet Joe Ballay
  • and Mickey McManus

  • , p. , August , 2019 ..
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    BulletBullet “The complexity of a business process … is like energy, it cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be moved around from one place to another. ” – BulletBullet ITworld post

  • BulletBullet Sean McGrath

    , May 36, 2010
                      
                      

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    BulletBulletBullet As Bullet (The Who told us in their 2004 song ‘Substitute,’ the simple things you see are all complicated. ” – BulletBullet Designing for Interaction: Creating Smart Applications and Clever Devices

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    BulletBullet ( “In short, particularly in the interactions between humans and computers, there seems to be a principle of Bullet (conservation of complexity Bullet) – what is complex in digital representation and computation can only be simplified at the expense of what is explicitly represented. ” – BulletBullet Fundamentals of Software Integration by (Kay Hammer.

  • and Bullet Tina Timmerman , p. , December , . Independent formulation of the Law. See also pp. – 560.
                      
                      
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    BulletBullet “Talking about something being simple when not actually looking at how inevitable complexity is going to be dealt with, is asking to get into the weeds. ” – BulletBullet (blog post

  • by Bill de hOra ,
  • , August Bullet , Bullet                                      
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    BulletBulletBullet “I think if we look at some of the most successful applications in history, we’ll find Tesler’s law at work behind their success. ” – BulletBullet (blog post

  • by Mark Mzyk ,
  • , August ,
    Bullet                   
                      
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    BulletBullet “Just as energy is never lost, the minimum amount of complexity an entire system must have to achieve its goals can never be reduced, it can only be moved around. ” ( (blog post Bullet, August , 2012) and “It’s also a factor in the organization … If someone (or some department) does less, then someone else must do more, else the result will not occur.” ( blog post , September 3 , 2012) – both by Eachan Fletcher .

                                         

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    BulletBullet “… the total amount of complexity in a software system is always constant and can be moved across layers . … Where you place it is an architectural choice. ” – BulletBullet Microsoft® .NET: Architecting Applications for the Enterprise by Dino Esposito and Andrea Saltarello , p. , October , 2012. Independent formulation of the Law.

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    BulletBullet “An example of this transfer of complexity can be seen in automatic route finders … the computer carries out the calculations [of the optimum route] rather than the human user. ” – BulletBullet Cognitive Work Analysis: Coping with Complexity

  • by Daniel P. Jenkins , Neville A. Stanton , Bullet Paul M. Salmon Bullet and Bullet Guy H Walker , Bullet, p. 8, January 1, 2013.
                                         

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    BulletBullet “I especially like the economic parallel which hides beneath it – how we trade, value, exchange and often disregard the scarcest resource (and currency) of all: time. ” – BulletBullet (blog post

  • by Matt Griswold

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    BulletBullet “Moreover, the software vendors have left all the technical complexity for the user … The only way to get to the desired level of usability is to design software that would reflect the work process of the user (workflow) and the mental model (concepts) of the user (terminology). ” – BulletBullet eHealth – A Global Perspective by Bullet Alan R. Shark

  • and
  • Sylviane Toporkoff
  • Bullet, p. 270, March ,
    Bullet                                      

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    BulletBullet “People who design learning-at-work programs based on slavish

    (Cognitive Load

  • principles probably believe they’re shouldering the responsibility for the ‘irreducible complexity’ of learning [but] they could merely be postponing the hard work of learning. You can’t think for somebody else any more than you can eat or drink for them. ” – BulletBullet waybacked blog post

    Bullet by BulletBullet Bunchberry & Fern ,

  • , March
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    BulletBullet “The secret of creating a simple user experience is to shift complexity into the right place, so that each moment feels simple. ” – BulletBullet Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

  • by Bullet Giles Colborne , Bullet, p. , September

    , 2015
                                         

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    BulletBullet “The automobile and its computer systems become more complex every year, but this hidden complexity transforms the driver’s task, simplifying it while making it safer. ” – BulletBullet (Living with Complexity) Bullet by BulletBullet Donald Norman

  • , , October ,                                      

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    BulletBullet “As the apparent complexity of a system is made easier, the complexity of the designers’ task must increase to fill the gap. Great news for those designers ready for the task, and for those students studying interaction design in school today. ” – BulletBullet (review of Norman’s book by Robert Blinn Bullet, February 1, . Bullet

                                         

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    BulletBullet “Start by figuring out where the core complexity lies, then decide which part of that the user might like to have, and when in the overall process. ” – BulletBullet (Microinteractions: Designing with Details

  • Bullet by Bullet Dan Saffer , pp. – , May 36, 050531                                      

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    BulletBullet “It could take the engineers many extra hours to save the users just a few seconds each, but according to Tesler that’s an appropriate trade-off. I suggest that this is the same model we should use in marketing. ” – BulletBullet (blog post

    by BulletBullet John Kuefler

  • , November 4, 050531 Bullet                                      
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    BulletBullet “Complexity is thus shifted from physical infrastructure to algorithms.” – How Raffaello D’Andrea summed up his robot-assisted airport baggage concept to Kyle Chayka for Bullet The New York Times Magazine BulletBullet, November , , p.
                      
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