If this subject interests you, I recommend checking out Andrew Gordon's wonderful book The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command (https://www.amazon.com/Rules-Game-Jutland-British-Command/dp...), which (among other things) goes into great detail on how complicated the Royal Navy's system of flag signaling had become by the turn of the 20th century, the efforts of some brilliant officers to simplify it, and the disastrous wartime results that came because others clung too hard to the positions of influence mastering that system had won them in peacetime to see that it was completely unworkable in war. It's a fascinating portrait of how technical innovation and institutional inertia can collide, and what happens when inertia is allowed to win.