I kept saying I didn’t have enough.

Not enough hours. Not enough help. Not enough space.

The problem wasn’t time.

It was the timing of the parts.

Too many moving parts.

Too many decisions.

Too many interactions nested inside of each other.

It wasn’t the size of the thing.

It was the number of parts.

The combinations of parts.

Parts and combinations.

I couldn’t see it.

I was treating it like a task.

When it was a system.

A system I didn’t know I was trying to manage.

I could handle the parts.

I was missing how they interacted.

How pulling one thread

tangled five others.

We built a grid.

To name the system.

Simple. Complicated. Complex. Very complex.

Simple is one part.

Complicated is a few parts.

Complex is how the parts connect.

Very complex is when the connection is hard to predict.

The more parts, the more combinations.

The more combinations, the heavier it gets.

Mentally.

That weight has to be diagnosed

before I say ‘yes’ to something

I will quietly resent.

The Complexity Grid: Diagnose doesn’t fix systems.

It clarifies them.