# Tradeoffs ![[universal-tradeoffs-manga.png]] ![[universal-tradeoffs-fpv.png]] [[Every YES is a NO to Something Else]] The "pick two" triangle that captures this principle in project management is the [[Iron Triangle]] -- Scope, Time, Cost. You can optimize for any two, but the third must give. ^fu-20260504-1 > [!faq]- What's the "choose two out of three" triangle? > The [[Iron Triangle]] (also called the Triple Constraint or "Good, Fast, Cheap -- pick two"). Three vertices: **Scope** (what you build), **Time** (when it ships), **Cost** (resources). Optimizing two always sacrifices the third. When someone promises all three, one of: they're lying, they're externalizing the cost (burnout, technical debt), or they're silently redefining a vertex. > > The Iron Triangle is the *project-management instance* of [[Tradeoffs|Tradeoffs]] -- the universal principle that you cannot have everything for free. See also [[Every YES is a NO to Something Else]] (the symmetric framing in choice space). ## Sister Principles - [[Complexity Is the Tax on Capability]] -- specific instance in the capability-vs-simplicity axis: you cannot extend a system's reach without accepting more apparatus. Trading simplicity for capability is one of the canonical tradeoffs.