Is Resilience a Systems Problem?

At the time, I framed the core challenge as personal: how do we develop into the kind of individuals who can survive anything?

But lately I’ve been asking myself — is that even the right question?

The Uneven Load of "Resilience"

I keep noticing how often “resilience” gets used as a kind of personal mandate — a way of saying, this is just what it takes now. Learn fast. Adapt fast. Keep going.

But that framing ignores the reality that not everyone starts from the same place. Some people have the tools, time, and context to adapt quickly. Others are still catching up from the last disruption.

If we keep treating resilience like a character trait — something you either have or you don’t — then what we’re really doing is offloading structural pressure onto individuals.
And that doesn’t feel sustainable.

Is resilience something we build in ourselves?
Or something we build into the systems around us?

A Pattern Starts to Emerge

The more I look at this, the more I see a recurring shape:

• Sudden, global change
• Old defaults disappear
• New tools emerge — but with steep learning curves
• People with access adapt quickly; others scramble
• The pressure gets framed as a test of grit or mindset

This happened during COVID. It’s happening again with AI. And maybe it’s always been happening — just at slower speeds, until now.

So I’m wondering:

If we don’t find a way to design resilience into the grid, are we just accelerating toward fracture?

Because right now it feels like we’re rewarding speed, punishing hesitation, and expecting everyone to navigate complexity alone. That’s a setup for burnout — and eventually, backlash.

Zooming Out: What Would Grid-Level Resilience Even Look Like?

I don’t have a complete answer, but I’m sketching it in pieces:

• Systems that assume people will need time to learn
• Institutions that buffer rather than extract
• Culture that honors pacing as much as progress
• Tech that expands human agency, not just efficiency

These feel less like policy ideas and more like design ethics.
Maybe we don’t need a revolution of resilience. Maybe we need a redistribution of it.

The Realization That Stopped Me

There’s an old saying:

“We can only move as fast as our slowest walker.”

But more and more, it feels like the world is forgetting that. The people building the future aren’t slowing down. They’re optimizing. Streamlining. Upgrading.

And it’s made me realize something I hadn’t fully internalized until recently.

Through my work in tech — and especially through the lens of the last few years — I’m seeing how deep the gap really runs. Those with access, whether capable or not, start ahead. Those with skill but no access? They have to work harder just to stay in the room.

It’s a classic dynamic. But I’m only now understanding it in my bones — not as theory, but through lived proximity.

If resilience becomes the new elite currency, then we’re not solving anything.
We’re just amplifying the elitism that’s always been there.

So I’m asking — quietly, honestly:

• What does real resilience look like when it’s shared?
• Can we build systems that lift the floor, not just raise the ceiling?
• And what kind of leadership does that require from those of us already inside the fast lane?

Because if we keep accelerating while others are still onboarding, we’re not building a future.
We’re building fragmentation. In code, in trust, in society.