The world is full of pain killers.

Got a problem with the bacteria in your body? Here’s a bacteria killer (antibiotic).

Got an issue that’s causing your histamines to act up? Kill them (antihistamines).

Got some generic pain in any part of your body? Destroy it (pain killers).

These are shit solutions.

Modern medicine is filled with them.

What’s the problem with my bacteria? Why are my histamines acting up? Why am I feeling these pains?
These are the questions to be asked, gone unasked. We treat the symptom, not the root cause. That’s stupid.

Even worse, our lives are filled with them (quick fixes are everywhere).

Lonely? Porn/hookups. Hungry? Junk fast food. Stressed? Binging/alcohol.

These are the byproducts of ‘the era of speed’ that has been criticized by our parents’ generation. It’s not all bad – if anything, overall, it’s pretty damn good. It gave solutions to problems that nobody had solutions for.

I’m here to argue that these solutions are not the best though.

Pain killers are everywhere. The real solutions should be root cause fixers.

Pain killers are great:

• They’re fast (designed to be a ‘magic pill’)
• They’re cheap (designed for mass production, single purpose)
• They solve the problem

The problem with root cause fixers is that they’re a lot less convenient:

• It takes a lot of time and effort to identify the root cause
• It takes a lot of time and effort to fix the root cause
• It’s very experimental, likely expensive, no ‘magic pill’ at all

So why go through the trouble?

Because sweeping things under the carpet is stupid in the long term.

Here’s the horrendous thing about pain killers: they come back to haunt you. If you ‘kill’ the pain temporarily, it only makes it worse long term. One day those pain killers won’t work, or you’ll lose access to them. Meanwhile, the root cause is developing. What used to be a problem that’s easy to solve is now a chronic problem that’s semi-impossible to get rid of.

If you’re optimizing for success in whatever field the pain is coming from, then you should look at the long term.

This concept/framework applies everywhere.

Lonely? Invest in relationships (friends/love/family). Hungry? Eat well (find out what your body thrives on). Stressed? Meditate & exercise (clear your mind).
Side note: amazing businesses will evolve to make root cause fixers easy.

What problems in your life are you solving with pain killers?

Set time aside. Think about it. Go through the journey. Turn those pain killers into root fixers.

It’s much easier said than done, but your 10 year older self will thank you.