the "fix" that makes things WORSE ... [🐝U]

Author

EG Orren
June 04, 2026

It's me reading this … No AI making it sound “perfect”.

Alberta skipped spring & went straight to monsoon season this week.

Over a month's worth of rain in 72 hours.
On top of a record snowmelt that was still causing problems.

Both my rain barrels sprang leaks near the bottom …
So all that water I should've been capturing just drained straight into the barn’s foundation.

The gravel in the barn beam holes shifted & settled … & I don't have enough left to fill them all back in

Solar panels haven't seen real sun in days. So I tried the generator. It ran for a bit... then stopped. Tried the truck. It lit up with warnings like a Christmas tree with synchronized doom & gloom tunes.

At one point, I just stood in the rain & took stock of it all.
Partly because I needed a plan
Mostly because I was running out of things to swear at.

& I noticed something.

None of this was actually surprising.
Not if I'm being honest with myself.

The barrels were cheap, flexible plastic.
Fine for normal conditions … on a temporary basis.
But definitely not built for this.
& I’ve known that from the beginning.

Just like I’ve known the gravel was going to settle … eventually …
so I guess it’s better it’s now while the ground in & around is still under construction.

Nothing was failing unexpectedly …
Which made it even more annoying.

Because I couldn’t blame bad luck.
But did it all have to hit me at the same time?!

I'd been solving the thing in front of me … Not the whole picture.

Most expensive problems don't start as hard problems.
They start as easy problems that get patched repeatedly.

I'm 2 months into a client contract
& haven't started the actual work yet

It's the truth & it's relevant.
& #SorryNotSorry

Even though with every week that’s passed, part of me’s felt like I should be making more visible progress.

Instead, I kept uncovering more reasons I couldn’t.

I was brought in to write emails & improve subscriber retention. That's the job.
But when I started trying to get into the backend to actually do that... things got complicated fast.
→ Platforms that aren't integrated.
→ Tools that aren't syncing - or worse - syncing wrong so the data looks right but isn't.
→ & emails being sent from 2 different platforms, making it functionally impossible to know what's working & what isn't.

Every time I run into one of those walls & try to sort it out... I find another one behind it.
It’s like those Russian Nesting Dolls … look inside 1 doll & there’s another … & it seems to go on forever.

The difference is that those dolls get smaller
My client’s tech structural problems aren’t

Every time my client hit a problem over the years, someone came in & fixed the thing they were asked about.

Which sounds responsible … Until you realize nobody looked at the challenges those fixes were creating somewhere else.
→ Platform not doing what you need? Add another one.
→ Integration not working? Patch it.
→ Something not syncing right? Work around it.

Each fix made sense in isolation.
Each one solved the immediate problem.

But each one also added another layer to a system that was quietly making Frankenstein look like a supermodel.

Nobody stopped to ask: how is this fix going to affect everything else?

Because nothing works in isolation.
There's always an impact … to something … somewhere.
There’s always a ripple.
& when you're only looking at the thing right in front of you, you can't see where the ripple’s going.

The mentee who almost did the same thing

Same week.
A mentee came to me with a proposal they were building for a new client.

Client asked for a new website & a new domain.
My mentee was ready to scope it, price it, & send it.

But I started asking questions …
Not because I thought the proposal was wrong.
Because I wasn't sure that was the real solution.

What problem is the client actually trying to solve?

They didn't know.
They had the request.
Not the reason behind it.

What's wrong with the current site?

Outdated pricing so they’re losing money.

So what happens if you build a brand new site & the pricing is still wrong?

Silence … the kind where you can almost see the lightbulb of realization they’d been solving the wrong problem

What if the old site stays live & indexed while the new one's being built?

More silence.

I didn't hand them the answer.
I sent them back to ask the client the questions they couldn't answer.

Turns out the developer had lost the login.
The client assumed that meant starting over.
But account recovery … getting access back & updating the existing site … was faster, cheaper, & actually solved the problem.

A new website would've been another layer on top of an existing problem.
Sound familiar?

The bandaid always stops holding … eventually

This is the thing nobody tells you when you're in fix-it mode.

The quick fix works.
That's the problem.

Because if it failed immediately, we’d have to deal with it properly.
Instead, it works just well enough to postpone the right conversation.

It works well enough that you move on.
& the thing you didn't look at … the ripple, the impact downstream, the thing that was always going to need a proper solution … it gets buried under another layer.

Until conditions get extreme enough to expose it.
A month of rain in 72 hours.
A new contractor who actually wants clean data.
A fresh set of eyes asking questions nobody’s mentioned in years.

The longer you patch, the more expensive the real fix becomes.
In time.
In money.
In the energy it takes to untangle something that started as a simple problem
& became a system held together by workarounds.

The better question … the one that costs nothing but a bit more time to ask upfront … is always some version of:

how does this affect everything else?

Not just: does this fix the thing in front of me?

My client's relationship with me is solid.
Not because I’ve been delivering what they hired me for.
Because I’ve been helping them understand why delivering it wasn’t possible … yet!

I'm pointing things out.
Asking questions.
Helping untangle the actual problem instead of just showing up & taking the email order.

That's not what they expected when they initially reached out to me.
But it's what they needed.

& the off-grid situation?
My neighbour had an IBC tote … a 300-gallon tank in a metal frame.
After a few hours of nudging, pulling, & creative use of the ATV’s snow plow... it's in place. Catching rain on a full side of the barn now.

Not a perfect fix yet but a much better patch until I can grade the ground around the barn.

1 down.

Funny thing is, I thought this week was about rain barrels, software platforms, & a website proposal.

Turns out it was about the same thing every time.
The thing that's usually breaking isn't the problem.

It's the thing that’s pointing at the problem.

Quick challenge for you…

Find 1 bandaid you’ve been dealing with..,
→ in your business.
→ in a process
→ maybe in a relationship

Doesn’t matter where.
Just identify it

Because the thing you're fixing might not actually be the problem.
It might be the thing trying to shine a light on it.

Make it a great untangling week!
EG

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