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A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system.

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More quotes by John Gall

Loose systems last longer and function better.

p. 93. cited: Paul F. Downton (2008)

A selective process goes on, whereby systems attract and keep those people whose attributes are such as to make them adapted to life in the system: Systems attract systems-people.

A system represents someone's solution to a problem. The system doesn't solve the problem.

p. 74 Cited in: Roger Kaufman and Fenwick W. English (1979)

A complex system can fail in an infinite number of ways

The system always kicks back. — Systems get in the way— or, in slightly more elegant language: Systems tend to oppose their own proper functions. Systems tend to malfunction conspicuously just after their greatest triumph.

p. 27 cited in: Kevin Kelly (1988)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John Gall (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.