On the Topic of Fixing Problems

2025/11/15



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I've recently been thinking about a simple fact: were complaining a class you could take, it seems I would graduate with flying colours. There are so many things about the world to take issue with, but to be clear out of the gate: I do not support the theory that it might be better to just thrust ourselves into boroughs of positivity and ignore all that is wrong with the world. Ignorance is never justified. What I have found is that learning about solutions can be both empowering and actually more depressing: This person is so clearly right and this idea, already thought of, could fix plenty of things in society, if only we were to try it. Whilst I'm confident you can theorize many examples of this yourself, let's take a look at something (relatively) apolitical: website TLDs.


A Speedy Example


a TLD (Top Level Domain) is, in short, the letters after the last . in a website URL. (for example, it's the .xyz in www.desyncd.xyz, or the .com in google.com). If you're wondering if we need these, we actually don't. The benefit is that it allows more domains and allows everything to be slotted into a group, (.app means it's probably an application made by a startup, whereas .su means someone is probably about to take your money) but if you consider this, you might realize that if you give everyone the freedom to write whatever they want as a URL, they could still include the dot, and in fact put anything after it! (Really this whole idea is a ploy so that I can convince someone to let me have the URL desync.d)


Okay...


Nice! Now you know about a problem, and you know a simple and elegant solution exists. Isn't that great? Aren't you happy?


... You aren't?


Yes, it is incredibly unlikely that anyone would want to implement your idea, no matter how good, if it ever damages the status quo, or worse, is likely to force someone to lose money. In the case of TLDs, there is a separate company in charge of managing and selling you a domain for more or less every single one you can think of: I got this domain from gen.xyz, but if I wanted to get a domain ending in .eu, well first I'd have to move to the European Union, and then I'd have to buy it from eurid.eu, a completely different legal entity with a completely different interface. Plenty of companies such as Namecheap or Porkbun have their entire existence built off the goal of consolidating one place to buy domains from, and attempting to overhaul an entire system with all sorts of money going around greatly endangers business men in their ability to buy that 3rd yacht!


You can typically find some variation of either this or bigotry at the end of most rabbit holes you might descend down whenever you ponder why something hasn't been done.


And You'll Tell Me How to Fix It, Then?


This is the most frustrating part: there is absolutely no way to fix this on your own. If it's a particularly hot button topic, someone might tell you to sign a petition, participate in protest, or volunteer at a non-profit, but while you should do those things, you should know that none of them will really fix the issue.


Of course, if any issue gets large enough, the big red button labelled "GENERAL STRIKE", or more aggressively, the one labelled "REVOLUTION" become remembered and pressed. These options have proven effective, but you would never, right?



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