文章提出，与其用“大问题”“小问题”按规模描述，不如用“高优先级”“低优先级”来判断问题是否需要现在处理。作者认为这种表述更能帮助团队聚焦先后顺序，而不是被问题看起来的大小误导。
Jason Fried
October 31, 2024
Problems are often described by their size. "Hey, that's a big problem". Or "Eh, that's just a little issue, no big deal." And if you do hear someone say “serious” you immediately think huge. It’s still about size.
I sometimes still use those descriptors, but I'm trying to use them less. Instead, I’m reframing problems as High or Low.
High problems seep. They stain. They coat what's below, like melted frosting dripping down a cake. Gravity always wins, and high problems eventually become low problems too.
You see this in relationships. Little problems don't add up to big ones - it's the big ones that create the small ones. Something small really annoying you about someone? Good chance it's because something bigger is annoying you more. High problems leaking down, staining what’s underneath.
You see this in organizations. People bickering about flaws in someone's work or style? It's not because all is right above - it's because something's spilling from above. Bad hiring, lax oversight, proper examples not being set. High problems are like water hitting dry sponges — they don't just soak in, they make everything swell and distort, turning small issues into bigger ones than they should be.
While it's possible for small things to pile up and color what’s above, that direction is rare. So when you encounter low problems - especially ones that wouldn't seem noteworthy to an uninvolved observer — it's safer to assume they're symptoms of something bleeding from above, rather than growing from below.
-Jason
About Jason Fried
Hey! I'm Jason, the Co-Founder and CEO at 37signals, makers of Basecamp and HEY. Subscribe below to follow my thinking on business, design, product development, and whatever else is on my mind. Thanks for visiting, thanks for reading.