Universal Principles of Design, Updated and Expanded Third Edition

072 Flexibility Tradeoffs

As the flexibility of a design increases, the performance of the design decreases.

The idea that flexible designs can perform as well as specialized designs has great appeal, but unless existing specialized designs are terribly inefficient, this is rarely the case. For example, no one car design is optimal for all types of races. When optimal performance is required, designs need to be specialized. When average performance across a wider range of contexts is required, designs need to be flexible. You can’t have both. Compare the design of top-fuel dragsters to Formula One cars to offroad racers. Each vehicle is designed to perform optimally in a particular context. Now compare these to consumer cars, which perform ...