# Why over-optimised systems struggle when unexpected pressures hit

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/the-efficiency-trap-why-optimising-everything-can-backfire-badly/
- Published: 2026-11-08T12:00:39+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-08T12:47:42+00:00
- Original publisher: The Guardian (publisher lean: Left)
- Original article: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/nov/08/the-efficiency-trap-why-optimising-everything-can-backfire-badly
- Topics: Business, Culture, Health, Markets, Medicine

## Key points

- Efficiency can leave vital systems short of reserves.
- Optimising what is easy to measure can overlook other costs.
- Automated decisions can combine to destabilise markets.

## Summary

The article argues that relentless optimisation can make systems more fragile and create risks that are missed when efficiency is treated as the only goal. Keeping spare capacity may look wasteful in normal conditions, but it can help hospitals, transport networks and other systems cope when unexpected pressures arise.

It describes three traps: removing too much slack, defining “best” too narrowly, and allowing individually optimised parts to destabilise a whole system. England’s hospitals reached about 95% adult bed occupancy at the height of last year’s flu season; Milton Keynes has around 130 roundabouts that favour traffic flow but can make coach journeys uncomfortable. In the 2010 “flash crash”, the S&P 500 fell a further 5% in five minutes before recovering within ten, as automated trading responses interacted and liquidity evaporated.

---
Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.