Hacker News with Generative AI: Complexity

Surprises in Logic (2016) (math.ucr.edu)
There's a complexity barrier built into the very laws of logic: roughly speaking, while lots of things are more complex than this, we can't prove any specific thing is more complex than this. And this barrier is surprisingly low! Just how low? Read this.

Mathematics, Logic, Complexity

91 points by jxmorris12 4 days ago | 42 comments

Why Everything in the Universe Turns More Complex (quantamagazine.org)
A new suggestion that complexity increases over time, not just in living organisms but in the nonliving world, promises to rewrite notions of time and evolution.

Physics, Cosmology, Entropy, Complexity, Evolution

149 points by konradx 12 days ago | 98 comments

Ask HN: Do programmers generally enjoy some amount of complexity? (ycombinator.com)
Occured to me that sometimes, simple enough is not good enough for us programmers. It seems that sometimes we might actually enjoy grappling with complex, even byzantine systems. Can anyone relate? I'm not saying this is a thing, not even for myself...but I suspect it might be, possible.

Programming, Software Development, Complexity, User Experience

26 points by keepamovin 33 days ago | 57 comments

Complex Systems Won't Survive the Competence Crisis (palladiummag.com)
At a casual glance, the recent cascades of American disasters might seem unrelated. In a span of fewer than six months in 2017, three U.S. Naval warships experienced three separate collisions resulting in 17 deaths. A year later, powerlines owned by PG&E started a wildfire that killed 85 people. The pipeline carrying almost half of the East Coast’s gasoline shut down due to a ransomware attack.

Complexity, Systems, Competence, Crisis, American Society

8 points by TaurenHunter 56 days ago | 0 comments

Sublinear Time Algorithms (csail.mit.edu)
We have long considered showing the existence of a linear time algorithm for a problem to be the gold standard of achievement.

Algorithms, Computer Science, Complexity

138 points by gone35 61 days ago | 72 comments

Complex dynamics require complex solutions (mathstodon.xyz)

Mathematics, Complexity, Solutions

214 points by ckemere 70 days ago | 144 comments

We are destroying software (antirez.com)
We are destroying software by no longer taking complexity into account when adding features or optimizing some dimension.

Software Development, Complexity, Optimization

1012 points by antirez 77 days ago | 622 comments

We've lost our respect for complexity (wilsoniumite.com)
I was talking recently to a friend about a video essayist I like, (Dan Olson of Folding Ideas) and when asked why I thought he was any good I pondered it for a moment and said “he has a lot of respect for complexity”.

Complexity, Video Essays, Online Culture

105 points by Wilsoniumite 95 days ago | 62 comments

C++, Complexity, and Compiler Bugs (azeemba.com)
I have worked on C++ for most of my professional career. Somehow, I have gotten more intimidated by the language the more I have learnt it. The language is very powerful but the power comes with a lot of emergent complexity that makes the language hard to contain. It feels like no individual even understands the full language. But individuals are supposed to read and write code in C++.

C++, Programming Languages, Software Development, Complexity

24 points by fanf2 147 days ago | 7 comments

Postcards from the Peak of Complexity [video] (youtube.com)

Complexity, Video, Art, Design, Visuals

4 points by royjacobs 173 days ago | 0 comments

Tog's Paradox (votito.com)
Tog’s Paradox (also known as The Complexity Paradox or Tog’s Complexity Paradox) is an observation that products aiming to make a task more efficient tend to inspire new, more complex use cases.

Productivity, Software Development, Complexity, Paradox

260 points by adzicg 186 days ago | 100 comments

Daniel Lemire on the complexity of Java build tools (twitter.com)

Java, Build Tools, Complexity

7 points by cempaka 193 days ago | 2 comments

Complexity as Design Material (arxiv.org)
Complexity is often seen as a inherent negative in information design, with the job of the designer being to reduce or eliminate complexity, and with principles like Tufte's "data-ink ratio" or "chartjunk" to operationalize minimalism and simplicity in visualizations.

Information Design, Complexity, Data Visualization, Minimalism

5 points by PaulHoule 224 days ago | 0 comments

Handling complexity without abstraction: Algebraic Bricklaying C (github.com/gritzko)

Programming Languages, C, Software Design, Complexity

43 points by gritzko 235 days ago | 6 comments

Merchants of Complexity (world.hey.com)

Complexity, Business, Economics

4 points by tosh 241 days ago | 0 comments

Merchants of Complexity (world.hey.com)

Business, Complexity, Economics

3 points by thunderbong 242 days ago | 0 comments

Merchants of Complexity (world.hey.com)