Simplexity by Jeffrey Kluger. Hyperion Press
Do you have a cell phone that has more capability than you can ever use and all the buttons to go with it? And has an incomprehensible 150 page manual to accompany it. Been in a traffic jam on an Interstate highway only to arrive at a point where suddenly there is no jam nor a reason for it to have occurred in the first place? Ever longed to give your TV a good swat to make it work as we used to do in the days of black and white?
Jeffrey Kluger 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.’ As he teaches us about new discoveries in the study of complexity he makes use of the famous bell curve (although he does not call it that) where the X axis is complexity and the Y axis the movement from chaos and instability (a room full of gas) to robust and stable (a lump of carbon.)
In explaining the complexity of simple objects the author uses, among many others, the example of the simple wood pencil. These two paragraphs sum up the main thought of the book most accurately. The author recounts the harvesting of the wood, the mining of the bauxite for the aluminum sleeve, the carbon from the coal mine and the lab making the eraser - and behind each of these processes lies the making and using of the tools that allow those actions. He continues to delve even deeper into actions and accomplishments just as necessary to support the whole process; clothing, delivery systems accounting systems, etc. Mr. Kluger finishes his paragraph: “A vast industrial machine rises up, switches on, and at its far end , spits out ... a pencil, arguably oneof the most complicated objects in the world.”
I enjoyed this book immensely but it is not read quickly. As Jeffrey Kluger explains a concept you find yourself applying the thought to other situations you face in the day-to-day world and then nodding knowingly.
