Dear Terry May I suggest that theren't out there 'simple design situations/problems'. In our planet earth context, multi-factors interaction is such that things can't just be 'simple'. Can we say rather that in some people's mind situations are *simplified*, first forced, as you say, by limited human brain capacity to grasp the full breath of complexity, and second, more often, for particular purposes, including ROI and other demagogical aims? Regards Francois Montreal P.S. In France and a few other francophone milieux, since three decades there is an ongoing network (animated among others by Edgar Morin and Jean-Louis Le Moigne) reflecting on how to 'think' complexity:www.mcxapc.org/ www.mcxapc.org