Leverage Notes #6: On Complexity Management

I don’t own a home, so I don’t have to worry a lot about home maintenance or replacing an AC system every 10-15 years. As a consequence, my life is simpler. The complexities of my life in the housing dimension are reduced because there are less degrees of freedom for things to go wrong. By there being less things to worry about, I do not have to be as reactive.

Time marches on, and everything physical decays as it does. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the continuous decay does affect how we live our lives. We work to maintain and build. But there are phases of life that allow us to more confidently take on more responsibility and complexity. As we mature, our capacity to handle challenges, stress, and general maintenance grows with us. The failures, social relationships, skills, identified patterns, capital, successes, and faith that we collect over time buttress our stability and overall well being. After a couple of flat tires, it’s not so bad to change a tire.

We become less responsive over time and feel more in control of the direction that our lives will take. We can dedicate ourselves and lead proactive lives that others can depend on. But it’s a journey. Staying on the edge of being proactive and reactive extends the reach of our competence and clarity. If you are overwhelmed, reduce the complexity until you stabilize and then ramp up over time. For example, I reduced my social commitments during high stress periods of work to maintain balance.

If we choose to face the unknown and see what’s on the other side of the hill, we are no longer worried about what we are missing. And part of success relies on knowing where you are in life, the strains that you can handle, gauging the complexity and risk in your life, and taking action as appropriate. If we keep our complexity at a level that we can handle and grow it over time, we can tend our house and then proceed to tend our community.

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