When You’re Good at Solving Problems, They Multiply
Being a great problem solver isn’t always the win it sounds like. If you’re not careful, you become the dumping ground for everyone else’s chaos. Here’s what I’ve learned about restraint, scope, and selective clarity.
I had a manager tell me once:
“When you’re good at solving problems, problems will find you.”
At the time, it felt like a compliment. It validated the thing I prided myself on—being the one who could walk into a mess and make sense of it. The fixer. The one with answers.
But over time, I’ve learned how dangerous that can be.
Because when you become known for solving problems, you start collecting them.
Not the right ones. Just… all of them.
The Architect’s Trap
As a solution architect, this dynamic shows up everywhere. You see problems other people don’t.
More importantly, you can’t unsee them.
You notice the shaky assumptions baked into a planning doc.
You hear a workflow and instinctively sketch a cleaner one in your head.
You pick up on misalignments between teams before they know there’s even a gap.
It’s not about ego. It’s about pattern recognition.
But if you’re not careful, it becomes a kind of curse: you end up solving things that no one asked you to solve.
Worse—you start confusing clarity with responsibility.
Just because I can see it, doesn’t mean it’s mine to fix. That distinction took me years to learn.
Firefighter vs. Architect
There’s a big difference between being the firefighter and being the one who re-architects the city so fires don’t spread in the first place.
The firefighter is visible. Respected. Needed.
But the architect shapes systems. Quietly. Thoughtfully. Long before the alarms go off.
I’ve lived on both sides.
And what I’ve realized is: the better you are at solving problems, the more deliberate you have to be about which problems you take on.
Three Questions I Ask Now
This is how I check myself now—especially when the temptation to jump in is strong:
- Is this mine to fix?
- Will solving this change the system, or just the symptom?
- Am I helping—or just proving that I can?
Because not all clarity needs action.
And not every problem is an opportunity. Some are distractions dressed up as validation.
The real power isn’t in solving everything.
It’s in solving the right thing—and letting the rest go.
