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#systemsthinking

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Problems are Places, Questions are Spaces

Last year, while regrouping myself and rebuilding my old curious ways, I had a thought. The common words “spaces” and “places” pass through our minds, fingers, and lips but they deserve a second thought. Unsurprisingly, I wasn’t the first one to consider this and the wealth of reading material helped me write We Need Homes in the Delta Quadrant. Spaces and places have been an enjoyable lens to look through.

Recently, through Agnes Callard’s Open Socrates, I was introduced to the Socratic concepts of questions and problems. Initially I thought of it as a newish way to look at things, but I’m converging toward the idea that problems are places and questions are spaces. A quick exploration below as to why.

Vintage pattern illustration. Digitally enhanced from our own 19th Century Grammar of Ornament book by Owen Jones.

Problems impede your quest and solving them makes them disappear. There are established ways of solving problems—recipes, algorithms, or rituals that nudge the obstacle aside so the original activity may continue unabated. Essentially, problems are tractable.

Places are tractable too as “an ordered worlds of meaning.” Place-making, like problem-solving, begins by drawing a boundary and then treating that encapsulation as a building black, whatever its inner workings. The moment you can stand somewhere and say “here” you have marked out a place; the moment you can name a difficulty and say “do this” you have packaged a problem.

The Socratic question, by contrast, is a quest. It is a hunt whose solution is unknown. Questions do not disappear when solved, instead they are additive and leave you with something, i.e. the solution. A real question insists on orientation before action: you must find north in the wilderness before plotting any march. And yet, along the path to an answer, you inevitably solve problems. Those problems are the markers that help you orient and keep you moving. A previous “solution” to a question can be used as a new place to further explore and prod at the question. In that sense, a question is like the horizon you constantly seek.

Spaces feel exactly like that horizon. Spaces are pure potential to be explored by the places that demarcate the space. Identity, orientation, and even memory of a space are created by and stored in the places that surround it. To explore a space you must create stable places around it

While the new way of thinking about Questions and Problems is great, I still prefer the lens of Spaces and Places. Q&P seem too narrow a set of lenses limited to the human mind. S&P expand that stage and allow us to think of more in that context. What I like even more is that spaces can also be places assuming we allow a boundary to be drawn around the fuzzy nature of a space. As a scientist, this feels a bit more satisfying because it allows you to explore and experiment even when the knowledge isn’t properly tied down by facts. 

If you are personally answering lead inquiries, chasing down no-shows, or managing the schedule, you are the most overpaid, inefficient admin assistant in your own company.

Your job is to be the strategist, the deal-maker, the leader.

Delegate the robotic tasks to a system that never sleeps or complains. It's time to fire yourself from the jobs you shouldn't be doing.

Continued thread

Because of that longer delay, the right time to act is when it still seems too early. Which means you’ll almost certainly act when it’s already too late. That’s a recipe for overshoot and collapse, as the system’s carrying capacity erodes once it’s exceeded.

2/2

Jakub Jurkiewicz and I have been talking for a while about creating an event that feels a little different — less about broadcasting ideas, and more about building them together.

We’re calling it BEACON

🧭 It’s a one-day event for technical leaders
🎤 Talks in the morning to spark ideas
🤝 An unconference in the afternoon to go deeper, together

🌱 Theme: sustainable evolution — thoughtful, ongoing change in teams and systems

📆 When: 13th October 2025
🗺️ Where: Auckland

The event will be catered and ticketed (price TBC)
We’re adding to the ecosystem with something more participatory.

If you’re curious, add your email here:
📩 forms.gle/KcFvGyESGbU8w6Wr7

Please boost for reach 😁

#TechLeadership #systemsThinking
#Aoteaora #tamakimakarau #newZealand

Google DocsBeacon is coming - are you interested?Beacon - Shining a light on the future of tech leadership. A gathering for tech leaders who want to create the future together. Part talks, part open sessions, part guided discussion. No fluff. No hype. Just space to connect, ask deep questions, and shape what’s next. When: 13th October 2025 Where: Auckland Organisers: Jakub Jurkiewicz (Tech Waka), Andrea Magnorsky (Model Bridge, Virtual DDD) Sustainable evolution happens at the intersection of systems, teams, and intent. BEACON is a one-day event for leaders working across engineering, product, architecture, and people practices — anyone responsible for shaping how technology organisations evolve. The morning features six expert speakers, sharing frameworks, success stories and failures around leading with intention: from system migration to culture rewiring. The afternoon is an unconference — participant-led and peer-driven, focused on real problems and impactful conversations. If you're navigating change with technical depth and human nuance, BEACON is for you. This event will be catered and ticketed (TBC amount).