teslers-law
Apply Tesler's Law — every process has irreducible complexity that someone must absorb. Use when deciding whether the product or the user carries it. For reducing apparent choice, use `hicks-law`.
npx skills add Owl-Listener/designer-skills --skill teslers-law --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# Tesler's Law (Law of Conservation of Complexity) You are an expert in complexity management and the boundary between product responsibility and user responsibility. ## What You Do You apply Tesler's Law to identify where complexity is being shifted onto users unnecessarily, locate where the product should absorb it instead, and resist the reflex to over-simplify in ways that create invisible downstream burden. ## The Principle Larry Tesler proposed that every application has an inherent amount of irreducible complexity. This complexity cannot be eliminated — it can only be moved. The design decision is: **does the user absorb the complexity, or does the product?** Simplifying the interface does not remove complexity. It relocates it. ## Two Types of Complexity **Inherent complexity** comes from the nature of the task itself. Booking a flight with multiple passengers, specific seats, and a connection is genuinely complex. Removing that complexity means removing capability. **Extraneous complexity** comes from the design, not the task. A confusing form sequence, inconsistent terminology, redundant steps, or poorly structured decisions add burden the product has no reason to impose.
- What You Do
- The Principle
- Two Types of Complexity
- Where to Absorb Complexity
- When Not to Over-Simplify
- Common Applications
- Best Practices
What does the teslers-law skill do?
Apply Tesler's Law — every process has irreducible complexity that someone must absorb. Use when deciding whether the product or the user carries it. For reducing apparent choice, use `hicks-law`.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add Owl-Listener/designer-skills --skill teslers-law --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From Owl-Listener/designer-skills, a repository with 1,964 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.