But often there's the metaproblem that we don't all have the same problem. The person who wants the UK to do its part in a global system of refugee protection doesn't have the same problem as the Labour minister who wants to get through the next news cycle or the right-winger who just wants to stop people from coming. Sure, we can get them all on a news programme and have them shout at one another about the boats, but while for the first person the problem that needs to be engaged with requires a lot of engagement with the facts and history, that's not the same problem the other two are dealing with, let along respecting. As someone in the first category, I would love for them to have to respect my problem, because then they'd stop spouting simplistic nonsense, but since it isn't their problem, they won't.
What some people call a "problem," others call a "solution."
This is the "That's your problem!" problem, aka the "Not my problem..." problem, or the "That would be a 'You' problem." problem, or the "Do you have a problem with that?" problem, or the "What is your problem?" problem.
If you are the kind of troublemaker who has a "problem," it is wise to remember:
"It is what it is."
In the Game of Life, for every winner, there must be a loser. Who gets ALL the marbles? The winning side.
From team USA, meet our new losers, gamely soldiering on:
"Reality" is constantly shape-shifting in the USA. It is what we think it is, we think. One thing is certain: we really have respected the art of respecting problems. All will undoubtedly work out well!
Somewhere else.
Here, whatever you've got, the Repo Man is coming for it.
(FYI For those not familiar with California, Marin County is just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.)
New favourite example of Chesterton's Fence, that's certainly worth the admission price for something to have at the back of one's mind.
On respecting the problem, strong agree, except except. I think the key difference is what you do. The right position is not half-way between charging in without thought and standing back sucking your teeth discussing all the ways it could be difficult without actually ever doing anything.
Respecting the problem in this context should mean - I want it to mean - that you have to actually engage with trying to fix it, and learn and adapt your strategy accordingly. That means that your efforts have to be an attempt to fix it - not just blundering in - but also be open to changing tack if your first try doesn't work.
Have a Malcolm: As a younger man I was sometimes frustrated by my father-in-law, who would fix stuff by immediately doing the simplest, most obvious thing he thought of. I fancied myself much smarter, thinking it through, measure twice cut once sort of thing. Sometimes he was faster that I would be (and he definitely did get more done), sometimes he very much was not because he'd make things considerably worse. But we're actually very similar in that we both have a theory about what's going on and make practical, rational efforts to fix it, and change tack if the problem reveals itself as more challenging. Now I've more experience of what other people do (and realising the collapse of DIY skill in Gen X and later), I see that the big difference is between people like the two of us, and those who just kick it in frustration and break it further, and those who stand back and complain about it without being willing or able to do anything.
I will now be adding this Bunny Incident to my collection of case studies.
You know, the tech industry has a reputation for devising solutions first, and then to go looking for problems to apply them to. I wonder if that's a case of disrespect to infinity.
Short and excellent post - thanks Dan. This basic mindset has so many applications. One obvious and super common case: business IT programmes which treat changes in the way people will have to work as simple. These implementations are doomed from the start.
As it happens I was watching this one yesterday - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKYfExfj9CA&ab_channel=PlainlyDifficult - a 1920s multistorey carpark which had been incompetently-even-for-the-time built using brick pillars rather than steel girders with brick cladding; the 2020s engineering firm doing a refurb just assumed they were cladded, and so got workers to remove the bricks until it fell down. Would have been prevented by this maxim (even allowing for the fact that it should have been prevented by a bunch of formal safeguards too)
But often there's the metaproblem that we don't all have the same problem. The person who wants the UK to do its part in a global system of refugee protection doesn't have the same problem as the Labour minister who wants to get through the next news cycle or the right-winger who just wants to stop people from coming. Sure, we can get them all on a news programme and have them shout at one another about the boats, but while for the first person the problem that needs to be engaged with requires a lot of engagement with the facts and history, that's not the same problem the other two are dealing with, let along respecting. As someone in the first category, I would love for them to have to respect my problem, because then they'd stop spouting simplistic nonsense, but since it isn't their problem, they won't.
Liked: "We don't all have the same problem."
What some people call a "problem," others call a "solution."
This is the "That's your problem!" problem, aka the "Not my problem..." problem, or the "That would be a 'You' problem." problem, or the "Do you have a problem with that?" problem, or the "What is your problem?" problem.
If you are the kind of troublemaker who has a "problem," it is wise to remember:
"It is what it is."
In the Game of Life, for every winner, there must be a loser. Who gets ALL the marbles? The winning side.
From team USA, meet our new losers, gamely soldiering on:
https://marinlately.com
The new winners, doing their victory dance:
https://nypost.com/2025/09/05/us-news/ufc-match-on-white-house-lawn-penciled-in-for-june-with-weigh-ins-on-lincoln-memorial-steps-report/
"Reality" is constantly shape-shifting in the USA. It is what we think it is, we think. One thing is certain: we really have respected the art of respecting problems. All will undoubtedly work out well!
Somewhere else.
Here, whatever you've got, the Repo Man is coming for it.
(FYI For those not familiar with California, Marin County is just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.)
More internet research:
https://emiliam.com/songs-about-problems/
The problems that the first person has are first ignorance of the people they are talking about, and secondly suicidal empathy.
Yes yes I have jumped to a solution. But not, because I have put in the years.
New favourite example of Chesterton's Fence, that's certainly worth the admission price for something to have at the back of one's mind.
On respecting the problem, strong agree, except except. I think the key difference is what you do. The right position is not half-way between charging in without thought and standing back sucking your teeth discussing all the ways it could be difficult without actually ever doing anything.
Respecting the problem in this context should mean - I want it to mean - that you have to actually engage with trying to fix it, and learn and adapt your strategy accordingly. That means that your efforts have to be an attempt to fix it - not just blundering in - but also be open to changing tack if your first try doesn't work.
Have a Malcolm: As a younger man I was sometimes frustrated by my father-in-law, who would fix stuff by immediately doing the simplest, most obvious thing he thought of. I fancied myself much smarter, thinking it through, measure twice cut once sort of thing. Sometimes he was faster that I would be (and he definitely did get more done), sometimes he very much was not because he'd make things considerably worse. But we're actually very similar in that we both have a theory about what's going on and make practical, rational efforts to fix it, and change tack if the problem reveals itself as more challenging. Now I've more experience of what other people do (and realising the collapse of DIY skill in Gen X and later), I see that the big difference is between people like the two of us, and those who just kick it in frustration and break it further, and those who stand back and complain about it without being willing or able to do anything.
I will now be adding this Bunny Incident to my collection of case studies.
You know, the tech industry has a reputation for devising solutions first, and then to go looking for problems to apply them to. I wonder if that's a case of disrespect to infinity.
“Respect the problem” is the single best piece of advice I ever got when I was a young bureaucrat, eager to get solving.
Short and excellent post - thanks Dan. This basic mindset has so many applications. One obvious and super common case: business IT programmes which treat changes in the way people will have to work as simple. These implementations are doomed from the start.
As it happens I was watching this one yesterday - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKYfExfj9CA&ab_channel=PlainlyDifficult - a 1920s multistorey carpark which had been incompetently-even-for-the-time built using brick pillars rather than steel girders with brick cladding; the 2020s engineering firm doing a refurb just assumed they were cladded, and so got workers to remove the bricks until it fell down. Would have been prevented by this maxim (even allowing for the fact that it should have been prevented by a bunch of formal safeguards too)