Every Solution Is a New Problem
Several years ago, in the company I worked for, their password policy was a hassle - “Change your password every few months”. Update credential stores. Log in and out. Repeat for Mobile Phones. It was annoying, but manageable.
Then came passphrases. The promise: a stronger password you could keep for an year. I jumped in.
The old problem was solved. The new problem? Manually typing a 30-character, error-prone passphrase multiple times a day. We simply traded one hassle for another.
This is the trap of first-order thinking. We see the immediate fix (no more resets) but ignore the “and then what?” (daily typing hell).
The antidote is second-order thinking. You must look past the immediate solution to anticipate the consequences that come after the fix. The goal isn’t just to solve Problem A. It’s to ensure Problem B—the one you just created—is a better one to have.
We win the trade when the new solution meets these criteria.
1. The New Pain Must Be Smaller
A solution fails if its new problems are more painful than the old ones.
My passphrase trade was bad. The daily friction wasn’t worth the small gain. A real solution, like a FIDO passkey or biometric ID, solves the original security problem while creating a tiny new problem (a one-time setup).
If the “fix” just creates a different, equal-sized headache, you haven’t made progress. You’ve just rearranged the furniture.
2. The New Value Must Be Transformative
Sometimes, a solution is so valuable it justifies its significant new problems.
The automobile “solved” slow, limited travel. In exchange, it gave us traffic congestion, pollution, and fatal accidents. But the value it unlocked—personal freedom, modern logistics, and sprawling economic growth—was so immense that we accepted the trade.
Today, Generative AI is solving massive problems in code, content, and data. The new problems it creates—ethical concerns, factual hallucinations, and massive job market shifts—are enormous. But the potential value is so transformative, we’re collectively deciding these new, complex problems are worth taking on.
3. The New Access Must Be Democratized
Look at cloud computing. A decade ago, launching a tech company required massive capital for servers, data centers, and IT staff. This barrier to entry was the problem.
Cloud platforms (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) solved this. They gave a startup the same power as a global enterprise for a tiny cost.
Does the cloud create new problems? Of course. It’s a maze of service complexity and adds new responsibilities for developers. But these problems are vastly preferable to the old one: not being able to compete at all.
The ‘Solution Pre-Mortem’
Stop asking, “Does this solve our problem?” It’s the wrong question.
Before you ship, make your team answer two questions:
What new problems will this solution create? (Name them. Be specific.)
Are these better problems to have?
This is the difference between simply reacting and building with purpose.
Keep building.