Bounded Rationality and Knowledge Sharing

Bounded rationality is the idea that, in decision making, the rationality of individuals is limited by the information they have, the cognitive limitations of their minds, and the finite amount of time they have to make a decision. The term was coined in the 1950s by Herbert A. Simon, and a lot has been written about its implications from an economic perspective. This simple concept plays a very important role in how we make decisions as a group.

Essentially, deductive rationality in a complex system tends to break down. The obvious reason is that beyond a certain level of complexity, the human mind reaches its natural limit to cope; hence, human rationality is bounded.

This is why it is easier to have an effective, small team rather than a large one. This is why we keep our classes small, we break user stories down into the smallest deliverable units, and we strive to reduce the responsibility of our bounded contexts. In turn, this limits...