Complexity Accumulation

Definition

De Bono observes that complexity is not a choice; it is the default trajectory. Systems, laws, products, and organizations all tend to accumulate elements, constraints, and features over time. Each addition seems locally justified, but nobody reviews the whole. The result is that "things evolve to become ever more complex—not more simple. This happens because additional functions and features are always being added."

In the Book

De Bono argues that there is "no natural evolution towards simplicity." In practice, complexity grows incrementally. He explains why this happens in legal and regulatory systems: "It is not always feasible to go back and to start from scratch each time a new feature has to be added. This applies particularly in the legal world where a stream of qualifications and amendments is added to the current base. It is not practical to redesign at every step."

The book gives concrete examples: "In many cases procedures that were established many years ago, possibly for very good reasons, continue because no one has thought of changing them." He notes that "those who have got used to the complexity no longer notice it and even add more elements, so increasing the complexity even further." This is crucial: people accustomed to a complex system normalize it, and in their blindness to the complexity, they add more.

De Bono also points to an asymmetry: we readily add features and constraints, but we rarely remove them. "In practice things get ever more complex rather than simpler. This happens because additional functions and features are always being added."

Why It Matters

This concept explains why every mature system is complex. It is not because complexity is optimal; it is because systems lack strong mechanisms for deletion and review. The insight has broad implications: software accumulates technical debt, regulations accumulate exceptions and qualifications, organizations accumulate legacy processes, products accumulate unused features. Understanding this natural drift is the first step toward building systems with built-in sunsets, regular shedding cycles, and deliberate resistance to feature creep.