How to Create Complexity

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. The inverse proposition also appears to be true. A complex system designed from scratch never works, and cannot be made to work.

John Gall, Systemantics

What kind of systems are we working with that this would be relevant for us? Two spring immediately to mind - both our movement practice (as a discrete entity) and the mindbody phenomenon are characterized by systems behaviors, and it helps us to consider them both with those tools.

Complexity is a function of connections. Not engineered, but evolved connections. How can these be nurtured? I like to say: 

Some people change the task when they get bored; we use boredom as a sign to stick around a bit longer. Some people stick with the task when they get good; we use proficiency as a sign to move on.

By doing so, we create the only thing that we, as beings with intentions, can - an environment which gives connections enough time to arise (where the human inclination is to give up at the pinnacle of challenge, which often sits right before the point of opportunity of growth), and simultaneously maximizes the one resource we have to use: time, by minimizing the time allocated to things which have nothing more to offer us in the sense of growing in complexity (again, against the human inclination).