{"id":4661,"date":"2022-08-25T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=4661"},"modified":"2022-08-11T06:40:18","modified_gmt":"2022-08-11T06:40:18","slug":"how-complex-is-your-life-computer-scientists-found-a-way-to-measure-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/how-complex-is-your-life-computer-scientists-found-a-way-to-measure-it\/","title":{"rendered":"How complex is your life? Computer scientists found a way to measure it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n \n Unsplash\/Susan Q Yin<\/span><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\nKarlo Doroc<\/a>, The University of Melbourne<\/a><\/em><\/span>\n\n

Nobel laureate economist Richard Thaler famously quipped<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n

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People aren\u2019t dumb, the world is hard.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Indeed, we routinely encounter problems in our everyday lives that feel complex \u2013 from choosing the best electricity plan, to deciding how to effectively spend our money. <\/p>\n\n

Australian pay hundreds of millions of dollars each year to comparison websites<\/a> and consumer-focused groups such as CHOICE<\/a> to help them make decisions about products and services.<\/p>\n\n

But how can we objectively measure how \u201ccomplex\u201d our decisions really are? Our recently published research<\/a> offers one potential way to do this, by drawing on concepts from computer and systems science. <\/p>\n\n

Why bother measuring complexity?<\/h2>\n\n

There are several factors when it comes to measuring complexity in any scenario. For instance, there may be a number of options to choose from<\/a> and each option may have several different features<\/a> to consider. <\/p>\n\n

Suppose you want to buy jam. This will be easy if there are only two flavours available, but difficult if there are dozens<\/a>. Yet choosing an electricity plan would be much harder even with just two options. <\/p>\n\n

In other words, you can\u2019t isolate one particular factor when trying to determine the complexity of something. You have to consider the problem as a whole \u2013 and this requires a lot more work.<\/p>\n\n

The ability to accurately measure complexity could have a wide range of practical applications, including informing the design of: <\/p>\n\n