Optimizing a system reduces its resilience
Attempts to achieve system optimization are doomed to fail, because systems cannot be held in an optimal state. Furthermore, the optimization of a system is inversely correlated to its resilience.
…the more you optimize elements of a complex system of humans and nature for some specific goal, the more you diminish that system’s resilience. A drive for an efficient optimal state outcome has the effect of making the total system more vulnerable to shocks and disturbances.[1]
The more variation and inefficiency, the more resilient the system is to a wider range of shocks and disturbances.
See also:
- Efficiency is purchased by a loss in flexibility
- Optimization aims to hold a system in an optimal state
- Systems cannot be held in an optimal state
- Complex systems are characterized by VUCA
- Black Swan events are rare, impactful, and retrospectively predictable
Resilience Thinking – Walker and Salt (2012), ch. 1, § “The Key to Sustainability?” ↩︎