Simplexity

April 14, 2008
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 1, 2008
Time magazine writer Kluger ("Splendid Solution") here introduces us to the concept of "simplexity"the notion that seemingly complex things can be more simple than they appear and that, alternately, seemingly simple things can be more complex than they appear. Like Malcolm Gladwell in "The Tipping Point", he uses a single idea to offer readers a peek inside a wide variety of familiar occurrences, taking us on a fascinating journey. Kluger introduces readers to the relatively new field of complexity science, drawing examples from current projects of the Santa Fe Institute, the interdisciplinary scientific research center founded by Nobel laureate Murray Gell-Mann. Following the work of this and other scientists, he explains the complexity and simplicity of phenomena such as why it takes so long for a group of people to leave a burning building, why we're more likely to worry about things that probably won't kill us than about the things that probably will, and why the operating systems in our cell phones are so difficult to master. Though the chapters are only loosely held together, this book is sure to appeal to a broad audience. Recommended for public libraries.Elizabeth L. Winter, Lib. & Information Ctr., Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2008
Yes, simplexity is a new word--a whole new theory, in fact. In essence, simplexity holds that simple things become more complex (even unnecessarily complex) over time, while complex things can become (or be made) simpler. OK, so that sounds rather blindingly obvious: who, for example, hasnt shaken his head at the sheer verbiage of cell phone or camera instructions? But here Kluger, coauthor of the best-selling Lost Moon (1994), which became the film Apollo 13, doesnt merely trot out examples of simple things that became complex, and complex things that were simplified; he explores how they got that way and why. Instructions, for example, are complicated because the products themselves can do so many different things--the consumers demand for flexibility leads to complexity. Simplexity, the theory, is intriguing and plausible. Simplexity, the book, is a study of human behavior, and the way we perceive things and events, and how our perception frequently causes us to make wrong assumptions and to perceive simplicity (or complexity) where it does not exist. The book is sure to be a deserved hit among the ever-growing Freakonomics crowd.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)