---
title: "Start with simple rules"
description: "A small set of conceptual tools from which arbitrarily complex network structures can emerge"
url: "/start-with-simple-rules/"
tags: [principle]
readingPathPosition: 11
---

# Start with simple rules

The entire design rests on a small set of conceptual tools – relational protocols with [three layers](/every-protocol-has-three-inseparable-layers.md), [voluntary adoption with consequence](/participating-means-enacting-protocols.md), [shared commitments as a normative floor](/protocols-are-normative-structures.md). From these, arbitrarily complex network structures can emerge bottom-up, without top-down determination. Resist the urge to pre-specify more than is needed.

## Sources

- Emergence from simple rules is a key feature of complex systems; see e.g. Holland (1998), *Emergence: From Chaos to Order*

## In this vault

- Previous: [Facilitation before formalisation](/facilitation-before-formalisation.md)
- Next: [Target documented failure modes](/target-documented-failure-modes.md)
- Referenced by: [Protocol design is guided by a set of principles](/protocol-design-is-guided-by-a-set-of-principles.md), [Tension drives development](/tension-drives-development.md)