[ Complexity ]

Complex problems are characterised by their ‘murkiness’, and them being difficult to predict the solution, or even what it looks like when they are ‘solved’.  By contrast, complicated problems are ones that may be difficult to solve, but you generally know what the solution might look like.

A checklist approach to complicated problems sets a structure for the solution, because you know what you’re aiming for.  But complex problems by their nature evolve and change every step of the way.  One possible solution is to extract the complicated from the complex, but this is harder to do than to write.