Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Three ways people respond to a problem (other than solving it)

improvesomething.today

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 174 posts

Re: Three ways people respond to a problem (other than solving it)

#11

Post by shermantanktop »

jagged-chisel wrote: post #6

> … they inadvertently perpetuate the problem “Inadvertently”? Seldom.

Do you think people look in the mirror and say “I’m going to be a terrible person today?”

They look in the mirror and say “good job playing the hand you’re dealt - keep it up!” even while what they do is objectively terrible.

Humans have an incredible capacity for rationalizing their own behavior.

Re: Three ways people respond to a problem (other than solving it)

#13

Post by jagged-chisel »

shermantanktop wrote: post #11
jagged-chisel wrote: post #6

> … they inadvertently perpetuate the problem “Inadvertently”? Seldom.

Do you think people look in the mirror and say “I’m going to be a terrible person today?” They look in the mirror and say “good job playing the hand you’re dealt - keep it up!” even while what they do is objectively terrible. Humans have an incredible capacity for rationalizing their own behavior.

That’s definitely not “inadvertent.”

Re: Three ways people respond to a problem (other than solving it)

#14

Post by black6 »

The company for which I work seems to be run by engineers. When learning to be an engineer you're taught that doing nothing is always a valid option. In Army leadership courses we were taught that ANY decision is better than NO decision.

My company is stifled by a bunch of engineers in leadership positions who always choose to defer up the chain rather than make a decision themselves.

Re: Three ways people respond to a problem (other than solving it)

#17

Post by rawgabbit »

The "meta" problem is that political in-fighting usually results in local optimization everywhere. Various departments throw each other under the bus to steal budget/people/resources. When leadership finally decides to right the bus, they hire an outside consultant; this is an important signal to the departments to stop the nonsense and tell the consultant what everyone knows but doesn't want to talk about. Serious problems require serious solutions. It is much easier to say if Y department would give us X, then line go up forever.

Re: Three ways people respond to a problem (other than solving it)

#20

Post by didgetmaster »

People often attribute the government's inability to solve a problem even after throwing billions of dollars at it; as a sign of incompetence. While there is plenty of incompetence within government; I think the 'Preserve the Problem' response is mostly to blame.

If we 'solved' crime, homelessness, drug use, poverty, etc.; then budgets would decrease and political power would diminish. Those in charge of solving the problem often have the least incentive to do so.

Post reply on HN