🤯Unknown Unknowns #83 - The Pandemic of Quick Fixes

Every time I visit my parents, prescription drug commercials barrage me.  Since the average American watches 2+ hours of television, the whole nation is subjected to an endless deluge of these commercials.  While the logic for having commercials for prescription drugs escapes me, they're here to stay - I just wonder what these commercials do to the American psyche.

Drugs, while they are useful and lifesaving, also promote the mindset of a quick cure. Take this pill and you're cured. Side effects are glossed over or buried in an avalanche of fine print.  Or worse, a monotone voice drones the possible consequences while the watcher is distracted by pleasing visuals and calming background music.  Are you a mild hypochondriac and played doctor on WebMD? There's a pill for it!

I was diagnosed with asthma as a boy. I was hospitalized twice, a week at a time. I took medicine every day and carried an inhaler for emergencies. I would feel anxiety if I didn't have it with me. I was told asthma had no cure, it was a condition. Fifteen years ago, I cut out sugar, reduced other carbohydrates, and limited other inflammatory foods. I haven't taken any medicine since or had any issues.

I started wearing glasses when I was eight.  From that moment, I never left the house without wearing glasses or contacts.  I was afraid I would literally die.  About fifteen years ago, I ventured out without glasses.  It took some time, but I realized the only difference was that I couldn't read signs or recognize people. We are infantilized to believe that we need crutches.

Drugs should be the last resort. The idea of drugs as a quick solution dissuades the idea of figuring out a problem. We rely on drugs that remove the symptoms rather than solve the underlying problem.

There's a difference between chronic and acute. Obviously, if you are going to die in the next five days, you should seek whatever remedy is possible. But it is too easy nowadays to resign yourself to living under a specter of a chronic condition for the rest of your life.  

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said, “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”  Too many times do we ignore what we do to our bodies and instead seek a fix.

The idea that relief is a pill away is a short-sight solution.  It leads to indulgent behavior because a quick fix is readily available leaving yourself with no consequences.  But relying on an authority telling you the answer also leaves you vulnerable to their oversights. When you personally work out a solution, you know the limitations of that solution.

I'm not saying that modern medicine is evil. I'm saying that it's over-relied on. The pharmaceutical remedy shouldn't be the first choice and shouldn't be considered a cure for the rest of your life.  There's also pride in working out a solution to a challenge, in overcoming adversity.

I see the mentality of Prescription drugs leaking into other areas.  On Twitter, threadbois are the prescription drug commercials of the creator economy. Always promising quick fixes, never introspecting.

---

Discovery:

1️⃣I don’t blame people for pushing quick fixes.  The bigger question is, why do so many people look for them?  If quick fixes don’t actually fix things, why do they exist?  

Because people don't actually know what they're looking for.  They know something is wrong but they don't know what it is.  Tom Morgan talks about Relevance Realization - “knowing exactly the right thing to do, at exactly the right time.”  This is a hard skill to learn and harder to master.  Without Relevance Realization, we have no self-control.  In other words, our chase for quick fixes is a symptom of our failure to have Relevance Realization.

🔗 The Idea of the Year

---

Blast From the Past:

The myth of Oedipus starts off as many Greek myths do.  An oracle prophecizes that a man will be killed by his son.  In order to circumvent his fate, the man orders his son (Oedipus) to be exposed to the elements, to let nature kill his son and keep his hands clean.  Of course, this doesn't work.  Years later, spoiler alert, the man dies at the hand of his son, Oedipus.

Like prophecies, many people attempt to circumvent the law of supply and demand.  The law of supply and demand dictates that supply, demand, and price are indelibly linked. If supply decreases and demand remains the same, prices must rise.  If demand decreases and supply remains the same, prices will fall.

It's similar to the Iron Triangle in product management - "Fast, good, or cheap – pick two.”

When demand increases and supply remains the same, prices should increase.  Efforts to hold the price constant don't break the law - it causes the supply to decrease.  The supply is used up and not replenished because it's not worth the supplier to create more supply.

This is the exact scenario that occurs under rent control laws.  When rents are capped, housing shortages occur.

Like the laws of physics, the law of supply and demand is descriptive.  You can't alter, deceive, or ignore the law.  Unintended consequences will occur.

Oedipus wound up killing his father and marrying his mother.  His sons caused the city of Thebes to be destroyed.

---

You can find more of my writing at chr.iswong.com.

Questions, suggestions, complaints?  Email me at [email protected].  Feedback welcome.

If you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with a friend or two.  And feel free to send anything you find interesting to me!

Leaving you in peace,

Chris