“Every additional thing now interacts with all the other things.” —Jason Fried, CEO of Basecamp (photo credit: Michael Berger)

We’ve all worked on projects that never seem to end. Every time you think you’re done, you realize you’re not.

There’s “one more thing” you or your client wants to add. Somehow, you get exhausted and your work suffers. Sometimes you simply burn out and move on to something else.

Why does this happen? Why do we consistently underestimate how much extra work it is to do “one more thing?”

It’s because complexity is creepy. Not “creepy” in an axe-murderer type of way, but in a vines growing on the side of a tree—eventually suffocating it—type of way. If you aren’t careful, complexity creeps its way into everything, and arrests your growth.