Simplexity
Subtitle: why simple things become complex (and how complex things can be made simple)
By: Jeffrey Kluger
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Hyperion
Published: 2008
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 324
ISBN-13: 9781401303013
Subjects: Simplicity; Miscellanea; Science; Philosophy; Technology; Complexity (Philosophy)
Description: Draws on cutting-edge theories to describe the basic workings of everyday objects and principles in accessible language, covering a wide variety of topics from cell phones and viruses to economics and parenting.
Notes: Includes index.
Table of contents: title: Why is the stock market so hard to predict? : confused by everyone else; title: Why is it so hard to leave a burning building or an endangered city? : confused by instincts; title: How does a single bullet start a world war? : confused by social structure; title: Why do the jobs that require the greatest skills often pay the least? Why do companies with the least to sell often earn the most? : confused by payoffs; title: Why do people, mice, and worlds die when they do? : confused by scale; title: Why do bad teams win so many games and good teams lose so many? : confused by objective; title: Why do we always worry about the wrong things? : confused by fear; title: Why is a baby the best linguist in any room? : confused by silence; title: Why are your cell phone and camera so absurdly complicated? : confused by flexibility; title: Why are only 10 percent of the world's medical resources used to treat 90 percent of its ills? : confused by false targets; title: Why does complexity science fall flat in the arts? : confused by loveliness.