1) Complex systems are intrinsically hazardous systems.

[…]

4) Complex systems contain changing mixtures of failures latent within them.

5) Complex systems run in degraded mode.

6) Catastrophe is always just around the corner.

Richard I. Cook, “How Complex Systems Fail: Being a Short Treatise on the Nature of Failure; How Failure is Evaluated; How Failure is Attributed to Proximate Cause; and the Resulting New Understanding of Patient Safety”