# Complexity, Simplicity, Ease, Diagram: A Method for Business Logic Design - Author: Andrew David W.Y. - Source: https://yutengfei.com/en/journal/fan-jian-yi-tu/ - Version: V1.0 - Published: 2017-09-07 - Revised: 2026-09-18 - Content status: Full text published - Content type: Thinking (ideas) - Research topics: — - Ecosystem perspectives: — ## Use this resource **Purpose**: Map a complex business problem in full, find its structure, test the logic, then draw it. “Mapping the complexity, simplifying the complexity, making it easy, and turning it into a diagram” describes this process. **Conditions for use**: Check that the subject, objective and constraints fit the task. Confirm any conditions that the article does not specify. **Thinking · Premises and reasoning** **Evidence and validation limits**: A research and methodological reflection. It does not, by itself, constitute a specific enterprise solution, institutional commitment, or effective allocation of rights. No separate external-validation result is recorded for this article. Publication does not establish effectiveness; check the evidence, assumptions and limits in the text. This is a readable, citable knowledge resource, not an installed Skill. When using it with AI, retain its sources and limits and review the output. ## Full article ## From Cross-Disciplinary Experience to Business Logic Design Since 2004, I have worked in computer programming, internet promotion, marketing planning, business planning and capital planning, spending roughly three years at each stage. The work changed, but I kept asking the same questions: what are the different levels of business operation? How does enterprise value form? How do these kinds of work connect? As a programmer, I found that good software still needs to be seen, understood and promoted. Promotion then showed me that communication needs an understanding of customers, markets and value. Marketing planning needs a clear business plan behind it. Business planning also means considering how to organize resources, arrange financing and manage the risks involved. Looking back, these experiences made me more interested in business logic: where value comes from, which relationships affect results, and how to use that understanding in operations. Understanding these questions gives action a clearer direction and helps build consistent ways of working. I also encourage entrepreneurs to practice “descending into learning and rising into understanding”: start with specific problems and everyday work, understand the principles behind them, then use that understanding in practice to realize business value more steadily and fully. After the first thirteen years of practice, I began combining internet thinking with blockchain’s emphasis on consensus. I used business logic diagrams and comprehensive mind maps to show these relationships more fully to entrepreneurs. Map the complexity → Simplify the complexity → Make it easy → Turn it into a diagram ## I. Map the Complexity: Present the Whole Business Clearly On the surface, every enterprise appears to have a different business logic. At a deeper level, however, different forms of business logic often contain a recurring set of design dimensions. In the section “Business Logic Design Tools and Mind Maps,” I seek to identify the common dimensions behind the real problems encountered in enterprise operations. These dimensions can then be organized and presented through mind maps and business logic diagrams. At first, this process is inevitably complicated, and the resulting mind map may be very large. Only by recording the problems, roles, resources, objectives, processes, relationships, and outcomes as fully as possible can we begin to see the overall business structure. “Complexity” does not mean creating complexity for its own sake. It means resisting the urge to simplify too early. We first make visible the material scattered across experience, departments, processes, and judgments, and then classify, compare, and examine it. As the work progresses, the business logic can be divided into clearer areas, and the boundaries between key questions can become visible. This is what it means to map the complexity: see the whole picture before deciding what truly matters. ## II. Simplify the Complexity: Distill Structure from Accumulated Information When approaching a new field of knowledge, it is easy to become like the people in the parable of the blind men and the elephant: we mistake whatever part we have touched for the whole. To understand a subject properly, we need to invest time and patience, reading both primary sources such as books and papers and secondary materials such as online resources, and gradually build an overall view. This process is necessarily demanding. We need to filter repeated information, distinguish facts from opinions, assess the reliability of sources, and separate valuable material from unsupported claims. As information accumulates, the underlying structure begins to emerge. Mind maps can help us build a system of knowledge. Repeatedly adjusting a mind map is, in practice, a way of repeatedly searching for structure. The core of simplification is not merely deleting information. It is identifying the relationships beneath the information. We may divide a problem according to different dimensions, and we may change dimensions when an analysis reaches a dead end. Whatever the approach, the focus should remain on the factors that genuinely influence the final outcome. For example, take “a rocket successfully reaching the sky” as the final outcome. We can ask what conditions must be satisfied at the same time. The launch structure must keep the rocket stable and upright; the engines must provide sufficient thrust; the navigation system must correct its direction; and the structure and materials must withstand the heat and pressure of flight. Once these key points are separated and related items are grouped together, the overall logic of a launch begins to become clear. Business problems can be approached in the same way. Starting from the desired result, we ask what conditions, steps, and relationships are necessary to achieve it. We then merge repeated elements, separate different kinds of elements, and gradually clarify the major categories. This is what it means to simplify the complexity: distill a structure that can explain the result from a large body of information. ## III. Make It Easy: Turn Structure into a Clear Method “Easy” does not mean oversimplifying a problem. It means making a complex structure easier to understand, discuss, and apply. As our learning deepens, we develop our own judgments and interpretations, and the key points become more accurate. This requires repeated refinement: refine the questions, refine the relationships, refine the judgments, and then refine the expression. In the end, the key points along the structure should be concise and clear, and the relationships between them should be explicit. Even then, the work is not finished. We must continue to test the logic: if we follow this structure, are there any breaks in the reasoning? Have important conditions been omitted? Can the different stages explain one another? Does the structure form a complete loop? When these questions can be answered, a previously unwieldy mind map begins to become a clear, understandable, and reusable method. Making a subject easy is therefore a process of continuous verification. It requires us to remove what is unimportant without losing the conditions that determine the result. True simplicity does not mean that less content is always better. It means that every retained point has a clear purpose. ## IV. Turn It into a Diagram: Make Business Logic Visible The final step is to turn the clear structure into a diagram. This step may look simple, but it is difficult in practice. It is simple because the key points and their relationships have already been identified, refined, and tested. It is difficult because all of them now need to be placed into a single visual structure so that the logic can be seen quickly, understood accurately, and checked repeatedly. A good business logic diagram should meet at least three conditions: - **Logical rigor**: the relationships between key points should not depend on guesswork; direction, sequence, and causality should be as clear as possible. - **Structural clarity**: levels, categories, boundaries, and priorities should be easy to identify. - **Appropriate expression**: the diagram should be complete and orderly, with enough visual quality to support understanding rather than obscure the logic. This work requires repeated attempts. The position of a shape, the direction of a connection, the number of levels, and the length of the text can all affect comprehension. No layout technique can replace a deep understanding of the system itself, and no diagram can emerge naturally without sustained thinking. The purpose is not to force every sentence into one image. A diagram is a compressed expression of logic: readers should be able to follow its paths, find the key nodes, see the relationships, and use the structure to ask further questions or begin practical work. This is what it means to turn the easy into a diagram: convert an understood logic into a structure that can be seen, discussed, and used. ## Conclusion: Put the Method Back to Work “Mapping the complexity, simplifying the complexity, making it easy, and turning it into a diagram” describes how I turn experience into a method, then use that method in practice. Map the problem fully, find its structure, test the logic, then draw it. The key points and relationships need to be explained clearly and tested in actual operations. The value of this work is to turn scattered experience into methods people can understand, check and improve together. With entrepreneurs’ continued participation, these methods have a chance to become lasting ways of working in the company. 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