Episode Details
Back to EpisodesEp.342 Are You Solving Flies… or Hunting the Dragon?
Description
Most people feel productive because they’re constantly responding. Inbox pings, Slack dings, a fire pops up—you put it out. It feels useful. It feels necessary. But it’s not progress. It’s maintenance disguised as momentum.
The people who change their industry aren’t just problem-solvers. They’re problem-seekers. They look past the symptom and ask the question no one else pauses long enough to ask: What’s the one root problem that, if solved, would erase a hundred downstream headaches?
Fly-swatting is noisy, reactive, and endless. Dragon-hunting looks quiet. It looks like thinking. It looks like staring out a window or asking the “dumb” question that cracks the whole system open. One gets you applause. The other gives you leverage.
Today’s Move: Run the Find the Nest Audit. Pick your three most annoying recurring tasks this week. Instead of doing them automatically, block 20 minutes and ask: What system, process, or assumption is creating these problems in the first place? Fix the nest, not the flies. That’s where the leverage lives.