- Hardcover: 336 pages
- Publisher: Hyperion (May 26 2008)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1401303013
- ISBN-13: 978-1401303013
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 15.1 x 2.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 431 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #230,087 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Frustrated by the traffic on narrow bridges? Stunned by the number of buttons on a remote control? Saddened by the lack of basic medical care in the developing world? Kluger (Splendid Solutions) makes the modern world comprehensible, analyzing social and technological systems to reveal that things that seem complicated can be preposterously simple; things that seem simple can be dizzyingly complex. He compares cells to cities to stock markets, renders quarks and fractals accessible and draws parallels between Wal-Mart and AIDS clinics in Tanzania. Although Kluger is prone to hyperbole, his astonishing discoveries require no exaggeration: the book describes how even the most technologically advanced manufacturing plant is infinitely simpler than a humble houseplant with its microhydraulics and fine-tuned metabolism and dense schematic of nucleic acids—and baseball fans will be dismayed to discover that football is, in fact, the more complex of the two games: the possible number of starting configurations before the play even begins is... 31.4 billion. Kluger's findings are likely to incite controversy, confirming his contention that explaining simplicity and complexity is never as straightforward as it seems. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Book Description
Just as Freakonomics took a unique look at issues, Simplexity demonstrates how, in a world that has becoming an increasingly confusing and complicated place, by adopting a fresh view and new understanding of the patterns and processes that govern our planet and society we can being to make sense of them and take control-often by taking surprisingly simple steps.
The nature of the world isn't necessarily as it appears. Finding simple solutions to seemingly insurmountable problems are often just a matter of looking at the situation differently. Instead, people are confused by complexity and intimidated by scale. But the world is a delicate place filled with predictable patterns, and in anticipating and understanding them we can harness the eloquent power of small things. Simplexity elucidates dozens of situations where we are fooled by the world around us. Kluger identifies the roots of poverty, and shows how a hundred well-targeted micro loans can revitalize a community. He shows how the well-being complex ecosystem with thousands of relationships may in fact only depend on the health of a single keystone species. He demonstrates how, in many ways, a truck driver's job is far more complicated than that of a senior manager. There are tremendous real life applications for the complexity processes examined in Simplexity--and the world's visionaries are only just beginning to realize it.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Maybe too simple,
By
This review is from: Simplexity: Why Simple Things Become Complex(And How Complex Things Can Be Made Simple) (Hardcover)
There are a few insights in the book, but nothing jaw-dropping. Rationale behind phenomena covered is most of the time some law of physics or part of human behavior. Popularized science book similar to Freakonomics.
1 of 5 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Learning to Simplify,
By Ian Gordon Malcomson (Victoria, BC) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME) (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Simplexity: The Simple Rules of a Complex World (Paperback)
The journalist Jeff Kluger has written a very challenging little book on how knowledge can be understood both from the dimensions of complexity of simplicity. What looks straightforward and simple for one person becomes impossibly tangled for another. Within this range of perceptions comes the influence of a myriad of factors that help shape and form our personal and collective understanding of the world around us. His study reviews a number of seemingly common human experiences that elicit bafflingly different levels of appreciation, comprehension, and even bewilderment. Kluger privides some excellent description and analysis of knowledge systems that help comprise much of our daily existence. In the sporting world, many of us sport aficianados scratch our heads when we see the underdog beat the odds-on favorite. Quite often the explanation for unexpected victories in the sporting world, like in the political arena, can be attributed to a variety of factors that just happened to align in such a way as to achieve a different result. Winners in these two vocations are often those who learn how to make sense of the complexities so as to take advantage of them. I like the chapters that deal specifically with why technology is complicated and the world's resources are seriously underused in the ongoing efforts to make the world a better place. Here, our modern home appliances and hand-held electronic gadgets have become conveniently smaller while at the same time offering more control functions to learn how to operate in order to experience that illusory breakthrough. The abundance of options, while useless to most of us, are there to attract customers who might want to use them. Microsoft is forever putting out new versions of Word for Windows with more complicated new functions and simplifications of old ones. Most of us consumers simply go along for the ride as technology gradually empowers itself in the name of eventually making it all work for the betterment of society. Simple solutions for preventing tropical diseases in the developing world are often overlooked in the interests of deploying more expensive drug therapies that only the rich can afford. An ounce of cure is something our complex minds overlook in the interests of developing complex cures. While Kluger may be guilty of repeating himself in places, his challenge to all his readers is to search for ways to simplify an ever-growing complex society in order to practical solutions to perplexing problems.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.0 out of 5 stars (30 customer reviews) 19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Thought provoking paradoxes,
By Sreeram Ramakrishnan - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Simplexity: Why Simple Things Become Complex(And How Complex Things Can Be Made Simple) (Hardcover)
In a well-narrated and thought provoking book, Kluger raises some interesting questions about how we define or tend to view and experience complexity. Organized as a series of (essentially independent) 11 or so chapters, each one focuses on one aspect - herd mentality, instincts, equilibrium, payoffs, scale, objective, fear, silence, flexibility, false targets, and loveliness. A motivating title in the form of a paradox starts the discussion in each chapter. The titles (and the short sub title) alone are interesting enough to provoke one's imagination. The chapters that deal with instincts (analogy of fluid dynamics in traffic management and evacuation procedures) and scale (discussion on Kleiber's observations on animal mass, energy consumption and life spans) stood out the most.Despite all the interesting discussions, the chapters are so autonomous, a common thread leading to some substantial conclusions is not apparent. Moreover, it is disappointing to see that the author does not provide a detailed citation list or a reading list for the more curious reader, despite the references to work done at Santa Fe Institute and some books. The chapters do full justice to the main title, though the sub-question in the parentheses of the title doesn't get the attention it deserves.. Overall, an entertaining book that introduces the reader to a very interesting research domain. 14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Starts with a Bang,
By Ken Palmer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Simplexity: Why Simple Things Become Complex(And How Complex Things Can Be Made Simple) (Hardcover)
This book starts with a bang, and contains occasional flashes of brilliancy. The cover artwork, title, and premise are very appealing. Unfortunately this book doesn't live up to it's parenthetical subtitle of "how complex things can be made simple."I picked this up at an airport for a good cross-country airplane read. Initially I was very happy with this purchase. The first two chapters are very interesting, and propose some brilliant insights into human behavior. These insights, like all of the interesting facts in this book, are disappointingly unsupported by any bibliography or source references. Hopefully the publisher will consider adding a bibliography when the edition goes into paperback. This book fizzles out around chapter 4. There are a few interesting tidbits of information in the sports-centric 6th chapter. But it never seems to pick up the momentum created in the first two chapters. As a senior software developer I was keenly interested in reading chapter 9, which is technology centered. It's titled "Why are your cell phone and camera so absurdly complicated? Confused by Flexibility." This is where I expected Mr. Kluger to shine on the book's subtitle "How Complex Things Can Be Made Simple." In that respect this chapter was a complete let-down. The chapter provides an overview of the development of TVs, cell phones, and software, with dips into washing machines and other gadgets. Ultimately it boils down to a list of complaints about the complexity in technology, and a suggestion that simplification will eventually come as a result of market forces. My expectation was that some insights would be offered on HOW to make the technology simpler. Jakob Nielsen and others have done remarkable work in this arena, though we are still only scratching the surface of making user interfaces "more intuitive." It seems that the intuitive user interface is the mystical gold standard that no-one can seem to get right. But I digress... Read chapters 1, 2, and 6 for the meat of this book. Then move on to another book in your summer reading list. 7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Appealing but not very satisfying,
By Djembedrummer "djembe drummer" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Simplexity: Why Simple Things Become Complex(And How Complex Things Can Be Made Simple) (Hardcover)
There are many agreements that I would have with other reviewers who found the book appealing enough to open its cover, but not deeply satisfying - indeed, slipping into the disappointing range the further along I read. I thought that it would reveal something to chew on, to elucidate complexity and simplicity and the relationship of the two, but other than its first chapter with its discussion of a complexity arc, it had no more to add than diluted observations of what happens in complex and non-complex settings. Interesting perhaps, especially in the context of each chapter's probing questions, but basically not much more than storytelling of contrarian conditions (ie, why did the unbeatable team get beat by the pushover). Nice antidotes, but I felt a sportswriter would reveal more and in doing so, be more entertaining to read.It did succeed, however, in one major area: it got me to buy the book. The cover and table of contents, as Amazon allows, were intriguing enough to order it. It just didn't have the right stuff of Apollo 13 (the author's other noteworthy book). |
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