The Hidden Structures of Problems

Problems have hidden, repeatable structures. Here's my attempt to name them: 1. Smashed Watch There are so many issues at once that fixing one has no benefit unless you fix others too.2. Leaky Pipe Fixing one problem causes the others to intensify. If you plug up one leak in a pipe leaking in multiple places, that increases the water pressure causing the other spots to leak more.3. Shark Laser. A proposed solution is not aiming at a meaningfully important problem, so it doesn’t matter how well you get it to work or how much you enhance it.4. Oil LandA big problem is so close to being solved that the benefits will accrue to whoever first bothers to put a little effort into it.5. Lead to GoldA problem is so hard that humans aren’t even close to being smart enough or technologically advanced enough to solve it. We toil away pointlessly at trying to solve it.6. Booby Trapped GardenA problem is really hard to solve for reasons that are not at all apparent from the outside, leading to lots of attempts to solve it, all of them miserable failures.7. Feature CreepThe problem keeps growing in scope. It cannot be solved because attempts to solve it keep increasing the definition of what the problem is considered to be.8. Sleeping HorrorThe problem is not that likely to happen, but if it does, it will be horrible. Nobody bothers to try to solve it because they assume it probably won’t happen, and plus, there are more immediately pressing concerns. The horror wakes up eventually.9. Middle Court ShotA problem could be solved pretty easily, but it falls between multiple people’s responsibilities. Hence nobody takes responsibility for it, assuming someone else will do so.10. Will-o’-the-wispA problem that nobody can solve because nobody understands what is causing it.11. Tug of WarA problem for one group that can’t be solved without making another group substantially worse off.12. PiñataA minor problem or non-existent problem that is promoted as a major problem for political benefit, o