You’re staring at a spreadsheet that looks like a crime scene. Your team is burnt out, your software is glitching, and the consultant you just hired—who cost more than your first car—suggests you should actually slow down production to increase speed.
It sounds like nonsense.
Honestly, it sounds like a disaster. But this is the weird reality of high-level problem solving: the most effective solutions that sound like problems are often the ones that counterintuitively fix the root cause instead of just slapping a Band-Aid on the symptoms.
We’ve been conditioned to think that solutions should feel like relief. We want "more," "faster," and "easier." So when someone suggests "less," "slower," or "harder," our brains immediately flag it as a threat. But if you look at how the most successful companies in the world actually function, they spend a lot of time leaning into these "problems" to get ahead.
The Braess Paradox and Why More Options Make Things Worse
There’s a concept in traffic engineering called the Braess Paradox. It’s basically the idea that adding a road to a congested network can actually make traffic slower. You’d think more roads equals more flow, right? Nope. Everyone flocks to the new shortcut, it gets jammed, and the entire grid locks up.
The solution? Close the road.
Closing a major thoroughfare sounds like a logistical nightmare—a massive problem. But in 2003, Seoul, South Korea, did exactly that. They tore down a massive elevated highway that carried 160,000 cars a day and replaced it with a public park and a stream (the Cheonggyecheon project).
Critics thought the city would stop moving. Instead, traffic flow actually improved because it forced a shift in how people navigated the city and encouraged public transit use. It was a solution that sounded like a catastrophic problem for commuters, yet it revitalized the entire downtown core.
High Friction as a Customer Service Strategy
Most businesses obsess over "frictionless" experiences. They want you to buy with one click. They want you to get an answer in five seconds.
But sometimes, adding friction is the only way to save a brand.
Take a look at how software companies handle "churn." If it’s too easy to cancel a subscription, people leave the moment they have a minor frustration. If you add a "problem"—like a mandatory survey or a required phone call with a retention specialist—you’re creating a hurdle.
Wait.
Isn't that bad?
In the short term, maybe. But for companies like Adobe or specialized B2B SaaS firms, that "problematic" friction allows them to identify why a customer is unhappy. It gives them a chance to offer a specific solution the user didn't know existed. The "problem" of a difficult exit process actually leads to higher customer lifetime value and better product feedback.
It’s the same reason high-end restaurants make it "hard" to get a table. Exclusivity is a barrier. It’s a problem for the diner. But for the business, that barrier creates a brand aura that allows them to charge 400% margins.
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The "Problem" of Radical Transparency
Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, is famous (or infamous) for "Radical Transparency."
In this system, every meeting is recorded. Anyone can criticize anyone else, regardless of rank. To an outsider, this sounds like a toxic workplace culture—a constant stream of interpersonal "problems" and awkward confrontations.
But Dalio’s argument is that the real problem is the stuff people aren't saying. By forcing the "problem" of public criticism into the light, you eliminate the hidden problems of resentment, ego-driven errors, and backstabbing.
It’s uncomfortable. It’s a solution that feels like a headache every single day, but it’s what built one of the most successful hedge funds in history.
Why We Hate These Solutions
Our lizard brains are wired for immediate feedback. If I’m hungry, I eat. If I’m cold, I put on a jacket.
Business and complex systems don't work like that.
- Delayed Gratification: Most counterintuitive solutions require a period of "worse" before things get "better."
- Cognitive Dissonance: It’s hard to tell your boss that the way to fix the budget is to spend more money on high-quality staff.
- Optics: It looks bad. Closing a store to retrain staff (like Starbucks did in 2008 and 2018) looks like a failure. In reality, it was a massive reset that saved the brand's quality control.
Solving Labor Shortages by Raising the Bar
When a company can't find workers, the standard solution is to lower the requirements. "We’ll take anyone with a pulse."
This is a mistake.
The real solution—which sounds like a massive problem for a hiring manager—is to make the hiring process harder and the standards higher.
When you lower the bar, you attract people who are just looking for a paycheck. They quit easily. They perform poorly. They drain the energy of your high performers.
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When you make the job harder to get, you’re sending a signal: "This place matters."
Companies like Patagonia or Chick-fil-A have notoriously difficult hurdles for franchisees and employees. This creates a "problem" of a slow hiring pipeline, but it solves the long-term problem of turnover and poor culture. You’re trading a quantity problem for a quality solution.
The Technical Debt Dilemma
In the world of technology, "technical debt" is the shortcut you took three years ago to launch an app on time.
The solution to a buggy, slow system is often to stop all new feature development for six months and just fix the foundation.
To a CEO or a marketing team, stopping production for six months sounds like a death sentence. It’s a "problem" that makes it look like the company is standing still while competitors move ahead.
But if you don't take that "problematic" pause, the system eventually collapses under its own weight. Ask any developer who worked on the early days of Twitter or LinkedIn; they had to pull the plug on features to keep the servers from melting.
The Actionable Pivot: How to Spot These Opportunities
You probably have a "problem" right now that is actually a solution in disguise. Or, you're looking for a solution that you’re dismissing because it feels too difficult.
Stop looking for the easy way out.
Analyze the "Slower" Option
If you’re trying to scale a business and things are breaking, the solution is usually to stop scaling. It sounds like a problem for your investors. Do it anyway. Shrink your customer base to the most profitable 20% and rebuild from there.
Embrace the Cost of Quality
Buying cheaper materials or hiring cheaper labor is a "solution" that creates a mountain of future problems. Spending "too much" (the problem) is often the only way to ensure the product actually works (the solution).
Introduce Controlled Chaos
In software engineering, there’s a thing called "Chaos Monkey" (developed by Netflix). It’s a tool that randomly shuts down servers in their own network.
Why would you do that? It sounds like a self-inflicted wound.
It’s a solution. By constantly creating "problems" in a controlled environment, the engineers are forced to build a system so resilient that it can survive a real, unpredicted outage.
Next Steps for Implementing Counterintuitive Solutions
Don't go out and break your business tomorrow just for the sake of it. Start by auditing your current "fixes."
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- Identify the "Band-Aid" solutions you've implemented in the last year. Are they actually solving anything, or just quieting the noise?
- Look for the "Expensive" fix. What is the one thing you’ve been avoiding because it’s too slow, too costly, or too uncomfortable?
- Test a "Problem" Solution. Try adding friction to a process that is currently too easy but producing poor results. If your sales leads are low quality, make the contact form longer. If your meetings are unproductive, ban laptops and make everyone stand up.
Real growth usually lives on the other side of an inconvenience. If a solution feels too perfect and too easy, it’s probably just a different problem waiting to happen. The fixes that actually stick are usually the ones that make you sweat a little bit before they start working.