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#complexity

3 posts3 participants1 post today

A quotation from Bill Watterson

   CALVIN: The more you know, the harder it is to take decisive action. Once you become informed, you start seeing complexities and shades of gray. You realize that nothing is as clear and simple as it first appears. Ultimately, knowledge is paralyzing. Being a man of action, I can’t afford to take that risk.
   HOBBES: You’re ignorant, but at least you act on it.

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1993-09-21)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/watterson-bill/4909/

「 Everything’s optimised for developers – and hostile to everyone else.

This isn’t accidental. It’s cultural. We’ve created an industry where complexity is celebrated. Where cleverness is rewarded. Where engineering sophistication is valued more than clarity, usability, or commercial effectiveness.

It’s easier to win an argument by citing SSR compatibility issues than it is to ask, “Why are we using React for a blog?” 」

jonoalderson.com/conjecture/ja

Jono Alderson · JavaScript broke the web (and called it progress)We replaced simple websites with complex apps nobody asked for. Now it takes a complex build pipeline just to change a headline.

Efforts to reduce animal experiments are important and should be pursued. But despite progress in #AI, #organoids, and #InSilico models, I’m not convinced we’re there yet — especially in #neuroscience, where #complexity and systemic #context matter. However, I do think we should stay committed and aim for reduction by all available means. I recently came across this article, which gives a good overview of the current state of the field:

🌍 genengnews.com/topics/translat

GEN - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News · Why We Still Need Animal Research in a World of AI and OrganoidsBy Jason Shepherd, PhD
Replied in thread

@xris @HadasWeiss

Couldnt get a clear grip on your interests from your feed, so came here to say this too. Also markets ( #invisibleHand - theory of moral sentiments, and the wealth of nations) , #qualityControl, and #openBSD, I reckon. I'm delving these at the moment and it's super interesting. Also Enterprise Resource Planning software suites (specifically #ERP5 but it might prove too deep for my delving ability) and sometimes #cybernetics (which goes back to #mathematical #complexity and #communicationTheory ).

academia.edu/31793918/Walter_A

adamsmithworks.org/texts

man.openbsd.org

www.academia.eduWalter Andrew Shewart, Economic Control of Quality of Manufactured ProductWalter Andrew Shewart, Economic Control of Quality of Manufactured Product

The idea that "Every complex ecosystem has parasites" has stuck in my head since I read a now-classic essay about it some 20 years ago. I dug up the essay, and re-discovered that it's from Cory Doctorow @pluralistic

He revisited the idea in a recent blog post:
pluralistic.net/2025/04/24/her

It's got some good thoughts to keep in mind as we think about the direction of our country on this #independenceday

pluralistic.netPluralistic: Every complex ecosystem has parasites (24 Apr 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
Replied in thread

@ondra @dopatwo @signalapp @Mastodon

Always depends on who you are asking.

Also in the future who knows which service/-s will implement Signal protocols into some fediverse compliant software that a lot of people might be using.

Trying to tell people what's gonna happen in the future is like being on thin ice...one's promises may break at any given moment due to an extremely complex world.

Signal got issues, but we seek out the lesser evil...always...

Continued thread

This is an example of amortized complexity and Strassen's "asymptotic spectra" (nice monograph by Zuiddam & Wigderson: math.ias.edu/~avi/PUBLICATIONS)

Strassen developed this to understand the #complexity of matrix multiplication and #tensors, but it turns out to also show up in a bunch of places:
- #Entropy
- #Quantum information
- Shannon capacity of graphs
- Communication complexity en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communic
- Circuit complexity (Robere & Zuiddam eccc.weizmann.ac.il/report/202)