every solution creates another problem

I have this really cool bedside lamp – it’s a touch lamp with three lighting levels and I love it.

The only thing I don’t love is that it takes specialty bulbs… G9 to be specific. If you haven’t heard of those, they’re pretty weird looking and sometimes a bit finicky:

I was reading in bed last night and reached for the water bottle I keep on my nightstand, accidentally knocking the lamp in the process. The light shut off.

I tapped the lamp back on. Shook it gently. The light shut off again.

Great! Loose connection.

In one brilliant moment of clarity, I remembered halogen bulbs get really hot. So I knew I needed to grab something to insulate my fingers before trying to reseat this loose bulb.

I grabbed a pair of underwear out of my nightstand, bunched it up and used it like an oven mitt to adjust the bulb and make sure it was firmly in place.

I turned the lamp back on. A moment later, glanced over and noticed what looked like smoke.

I shut the lamp down, turned on the overhead light and looked over to see what happened.

Y’all… I melted my damn underwear to this friggin’ light bulb.

Now I gotta go get a NEW bulb because I’m not burning my house down for a $5 bulb (and who knew how thoroughly impenetrable/unscrapable burnt underwear is as a coating? Apparently they use this shit to make the Iron Man suit).

I tell this story for a few reasons:

1. No matter how smart you are, you are pretty much guaranteed to make dumb choices like this from time to time. Learn to laugh at yourself, and invite others to laugh at you too!
2. When you’ve got a problem that needs solving, I don’t know about you, but I find the quickest, least painful fix I can. And often that fix leads to another problem, just like this one did. I certainly wasn’t thinking 5 steps ahead to melted underwear as a consequence of quick action, I just acted.

The point being, there will always be another problem. Fixing problems causes more problems.

So stop trying to create the perfect plan and solve all the problems before you ever take action.

Odds are you’re going to encounter problems you never even foresaw, but yet are still somehow totally figure-outable.

Now pardon me while I head back to Home Depot…