We Create the Problems

I think about this a lot: how to summarize life in one simple thought.

The one that keeps resurfacing is this: Human existence is an endless loop of us creating problems so we have something to solve. We invent complexity. We build systems. Then we spend our days navigating those systems, congratulating ourselves for solving the obstacles we installed in the first place.

Honestly? That’s not far off.

Now, that thought ignores our higher function, the one I believe is real: creation. Humans are happiest when we create. When we build something meaningful. A book. A machine. A melody. A life.

But the daily grind? That’s different. The daily grind is bureaucracy solving bureaucracy.

Today my Dexcom sensor alerted me that it was expiring. Ten days. By design. Predictable. Engineered.

“Hey, dumbass. Insert a new one.”

Fair enough. Except I hadn’t received my shipment.

A few weeks ago, I ordered new sensors through the app. Earlier this week I noticed they hadn’t arrived. I logged in, and the order was gone. Just gone. So I reordered.

Today, after the expiration alert, I checked tracking.

No order. Gone again.

So I call at 8 a.m. They inform me my insurance no longer covers Dexcom sensors. The only glucose sensors that pair with my insulin pump. And when I asked why my orders were being silently deleted instead of someone calling me?

“Oh, we sent you an email.”

An email. You’re about to effectively interrupt the continuous glucose monitoring that helps me manage Type 1 diabetes, and you send an email. Beautiful.

So now I log into my endocrinologist’s portal. Send her a message. Wait for guidance. In the meantime? I go back to finger sticks and glucometer strips.

We built a system to manage diabetes. Then we built an insurance system to manage payment. Then we built an authorization system to manage approvals. Then we built customer service departments to manage the fallout. An entire ecosystem devoted to solving friction created by the ecosystem itself.

And somewhere in a boardroom, two executives decided to change coverage codes and call it “optimization.”

Now customer service has something to do. My endocrinologist has something to do. I have something to do.

The machine hums.

This is what I mean when I say we create problems to solve. Not survival problems. Not existential ones. Administrative ones. Manufactured friction. A loop.

And here’s the dangerous part: we get so busy managing the friction that we forget to create anything real.

So tonight, I write about it. Because if I’m going to be trapped in the loop, I at least want to observe it. And maybe that’s the only real rebellion left: refusing to let the machine consume all your creative oxygen.