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<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 9672124" data-attributes="member: 177">In my professional work, I have found there to be two words that could use differentiation:&nbsp; &quot;Complex&quot; and &quot;Complicated&quot;.A thing is &quot;complicated&quot; when there are many moving parts and details you must know to understand the operation.&nbsp; A mechanical clock, for example, is complicated - lots of gears and parts with very small tolerances in their design.A thing is &quot;complex&quot; when the end result is difficult to predict, even when you know the moving parts.&nbsp; A mechanical clock is NOT complex - its behavior is easy to predict and describe.Meanwhile, the interaction of three bodies interacting under the force of gravity (the &quot;three-body problem&quot;) is not at all complicated, but has &quot;butterfly flaps its wings in the Sea of China&quot; levels of complexity.Having peeled apart those two words, we can now easily see why this is.Tic-tac-toe is not complicated, nor is it complex. The game of Monopoly is moderately complicated, but not very complex.The game of Chess is moderately complicated, but is complex.The game of Go is not complicated, but is very complex.People don't have a hard time with simple or moderately complicated rules - they have a problem with how complex the results are.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 9672124, member: 177"] In my professional work, I have found there to be two words that could use differentiation: "Complex" and "Complicated". A thing is "complicated" when there are many moving parts and details you must know to understand the operation. A mechanical clock, for example, is complicated - lots of gears and parts with very small tolerances in their design. A thing is "complex" when the end result is difficult to predict, even when you know the moving parts. A mechanical clock is [I]NOT[/I] complex - its behavior is easy to predict and describe. Meanwhile, the interaction of three bodies interacting under the force of gravity (the "three-body problem") is not at all complicated, but has "butterfly flaps its wings in the Sea of China" levels of complexity. Having peeled apart those two words, we can now easily see why this is. Tic-tac-toe is not complicated, nor is it complex. The game of Monopoly is moderately complicated, but not very complex. The game of Chess is moderately complicated, but is complex. The game of Go is not complicated, but is very complex. People don't have a hard time with simple or moderately complicated rules - they have a problem with how complex the results are. [/QUOTE]

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