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I'm looking for a phrase that describes a problem whose complexity starts to increase exponentially, either because the problem is recursive, the definitions/conditions of the problem interlink with themselves, or it turns out that it's connected to a great many other issues, and changing one changes all the others in turn.

This phrase would be useful when, say, discussing how to solve a simple, harmless, trivial little bug in some software...that now has eight people standing around debating business logic and corollaries to corollaries and exceptions to exceptions.

Phrases that are close, but not what I'm looking for:

  • "Tip of the iceberg" could be used later on when describing the original difficulty, since it would become much worse later, but the rest of the situation wasn't originally an issue or complicated, and only by investigating the original, simple issue did the full complication arise.
  • "Can of worms": the rest of the difficulty isn't inherently a problem; the original, minor issue is the only part that's an actual problem, and the rest of the complication is created by trying to solve it.
  • "Cure is worse than the disease": it's not that the solution is bad or undesirable, but that the original problem was far more complicated than it first appeared.
  • "Gordian knot" describes a problem that is already complicated known to be difficult; what I'm looking for is a situation that seems simple or even easy until you try to solve it.
Aos Sidhe
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  • Would mares nest work? – TimR Jun 28 '23 at 21:11
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    You can say something like "It seemed simple enough at first but the deeper we got into it, the more it became a mares nest.". You may not find a term that conveys the notion of becoming more complex the deeper in you get. – TimR Jun 28 '23 at 21:22
  • "entangling problems" ? – Graffito Jun 28 '23 at 22:14
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    Related phrases that I don't think are quite what you're looking for "through the looking glass", "down the rabbit hole", and Heisenbug. (This last one is very close, but it's even more specific than what you're asking for - it's a bug that becomes more complicated by the virtue of the observed/bugged behavior changing when you attempt to debug it.) – Patrick M Jun 28 '23 at 22:19
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    Interesting question. You are in a way describing the other side of Alice's looking glass. But that would not do for your purpose. You could call the problem labyrinthine. When people enter a labyrinth (or maze) it seems simpler than it really is. In the novel 'The Name of the Rose' the solution of the death that takes place at the beginning of the novel, the English monk William Baskerville gradually unravels a murder mystery that does indeed get more complex as he unravels it. There is a labyrinthine library in it which hold the key. But too few are familiar with it for it to work. – Tuffy Jun 28 '23 at 22:28
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    "Can of worms" seems to describe what you want. A problem that seems simple until you try and solve it and then you find lots of hidden complexities. – Stuart F Jun 28 '23 at 22:44
  • Until we looked under the hood is a phrase I've heard used in business consulting referring to problems which seemed simple on the surface....until we looked under the hood and which point the problems metastasize – DJohnson Jun 29 '23 at 13:30
  • I wouldn't use Labyrinthine, since, like Rube Goldberg Machine, it doesn't capture the feeling of an unexpected increase in complexity. "Under the hood" isn't bad, but it feels more like a description of where/how the problem came about, not the difficulty of the problem itself or change thereof. "Through the looking glass" is the closest I've heard yet, just because it implies a descent into madness or absurdity—it's not perfect, but it's close. – Aos Sidhe Jun 29 '23 at 13:46
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    Does this answer your question? What is the problem that gets worse after you try to solve it?: tar baby: A difficult problem that is only aggravated by attempts to solve it [Oxford, ex ODO] / hydra / out of the frying pan into the fire – Edwin Ashworth Jun 29 '23 at 14:05
  • No, though it gets vaguely near. The distinction is that this problem isn't getting worse because of your attempted solution, it's just that investigating it reveals the complexity that was already there, if unrealized. – Aos Sidhe Jun 29 '23 at 14:08
  • That's contrary to 'it's connected to a great many other issues, and changing one changes all the others in turn'. – Edwin Ashworth Jun 29 '23 at 14:10
  • A common interpretation of the expression "deceptively simple" is something that initially appears to be simple but then reveals its complexity. – user888379 Jun 29 '23 at 15:32
  • Borges' story The Garden of Forking Paths has relevance here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Garden_of_Forking_Paths – DJohnson Jun 30 '23 at 12:20

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It could be described as a "Rube Goldberg" problem in search of a simple solution.

Dictionary.com - Rube Goldberg

user22542
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  • Thanks, but his isn't what I'm looking for, since a Rube Goldberg machine is usually apparently complicated, and the issue isn't that I have a complicated problem that needs a simple solution, it's that I had a (seemingly) simple problem that's become more and more complicated as I learn more about it. – Aos Sidhe Jun 29 '23 at 13:38
  • I get it, but my answer is understandable - the Rube Goldberg aspect describes the problem (increasing in complexity) by contrast the solution - which follows the problem - is simple. Sorry it doesn't make sense to you. Par for the course on SE. – user22542 Jun 30 '23 at 23:29