Key Concepts
The book's frameworks, one page each.
Strategic Complexity is built out of a handful of tools for solving hard problems in unpredictable environments. Each one gets a short page here: what it is, how to use it, and where it breaks. Every page links back to the chapter where the idea is developed in full.
The Midwit Method
Strip a problem down to its simplest elements, then test what you think you know against the real world. Chapter: Simplicity.
The 95/5 Rule
About 95% of a complex problem is unpredictable. Find the thin 5% you can actually plan, and stay adaptive about the rest. Chapter: Evolution vs Development.
Risk Exchange
When you can’t verify trust, make small, incremental bets and let reliability prove itself over time. Chapter: Trust vs Risk.
City Problems vs Jungle Problems
City problems are predictable enough to plan. Jungle problems need heuristics: act, observe, adjust. Chapter: Plans vs Heuristics.
Attractor Basins
The comfortable equilibrium where people and companies stop adapting, and how to knock yourself out of it. Chapter: Chaos & Attractors.
Habitat vs Environment
Your environment is everything around you. Your habitat is the part you’re adapted to. Chapter: The Nature of Adaptation.