Increasing the stability and efficiency of a system is at the cost of flexibility

As a system (e.g., an organization, an ecosystem, etc.) grows, the system tends to optimize for efficiency and stability—finding the one best way to do something and only doing it that way. The drive for stability and efficiency leads to increased fragility and risk to the system.

The growth rate slows as connectedness increases, the system becomes more and more rigid, and resilience declines. The cost of efficiency is a loss in flexibility. Different ways of performing the same function (redundancy) are eliminated in favor of doing the function in just the most efficient way. Increasing dependence on existing structures and processes renders the system increasingly vulnerable to disturbance. Such a system is increasingly stable—but over a decreasing range of conditions.^[1]

The more variations available to respond to a shock, the greater the ability to absorb the shock. Diversity relates to flexibility and keeping your options open. A lack of diversity limits options and reduces your capacity to respond to disturbances. Increasing efficiency (optimization) inevitably leads to a reduction in diversity. ([187](file:///Users/timj/Dropbox/Library/Book/Resilience%20Thinking_Walker%20et%20al_2012.pdf))

#systems-thinking #antifragility