The Complexity Paradox

“We are great at handling complexity until things get really, really complex.”

Human beings are fantastic at handling complexity. We are creative, connected, and able to take the uncertainty and confusion of our lives and transform them into art and poetry, into household appliances and skyscrapers. Humans have been wonderful at metabolizing difficulty into creativity and innovation for thousands of years.

But there is a paradox here: These inner resources—our genius for handling complexity—are mostly available to us during times of ease. Yes, we can occasionally innovate in the eye of the hurricane; however, by and large, we spend hurricanes underneath the bed and then come out and innovate afterward. We have evolved to have short bursts of incredibly stressful times where we have to fight or race away or hide and then long stretches of time where we collaborate to create something more effective for the next burst of difficulty.

Herein lies the paradox: We are great at handling complexity until things get really, really complex.

One can trace this to our nervous system or, rather, to the two parts that make up our nervous system. Our sympathetic nervous system is often called the fight or flight system. It is the one that is always ready for action, perfect for short bursts of physical challenge or threat as we prepare to move our bodies to save our lives. Our breath gets shallow, pumping oxygen quickly into our largest muscles so that we can run. We get hyper-focused, with our peripheral vision actually disappearing. And we get incredibly sensitive to danger, ready to lash out at—or run from—anything that might be threatening us. Even if the threat is not physical, the reaction is physical. Think back to the last scary movie you watched: your heart beating faster, your stomach churning, your palms sweating, and your muscles tight. There might have been zero threat to your body, but your sympathetic nervous system prepared for bodily threat all the same.