The Problem with Problem Solving

In his 1996 book The Dilbert Principle, cartoonist Scott Adams wrote “Engineers like to solve problems. If there are no problems handily available, they will create their own” (Adams 1996, 174). Replace engineers with scientists, and the quote still holds. The desire to solve problems and understand what is going on around us is a fundamental part of the human experience; scientists simply have a more systematic approach to problem solving and tend to tackle problems that are more nuanced or niched. Across disciplines, the number of problems scientists are trying to solve are innumerable, however an increasing proportion have anthropogenic sources. In other words, people create problems then look for ways to mitigate them rather than finding solutions that address the root of the problem.

The most obvious example is climate change. Climate resilient development was recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as the optimal strategy to address the current climate crisis (IPCC 2023). Simply put, climate resilient development involves finding measures to adapt to climate change to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This includes developing new scientific approaches that mask the symptoms of the issues rather than solving them. In the most recent Nature Climate Change issue, Dong et al. (2026) correlated genetically engineered (GE) crop adoption with climate, crop yield and harvested area data and determined that the use of GE crops improved average yields and decreased the need for crop relocation despite extreme heat and precipitation. While the potential for GE technologies to reduce risks of climate change stress on the agricultural sector should not be undermined nor overlooked, Dong et al. (2026) failed to address the core problem. As climate change accelerates, should all crops be replaced with their GE-counterparts? While rhetorical, this question highlights the workaround perspective most solution-focused climate change research takes.

While climate change was not created as a problem to be solved, inducing certain effects in order to research specific processes is not an uncommon tactic, particularly in neuroscience. To investigate whether the nonrapid eye movement (NREM) sleep stage is a key mechanistic driver of the restorative functions of sleep, Driessen et al. (2026) induced sleep deprivation in mice. NREM sleep is defined by synchronous periods of spiking activity (on periods) and silence (off periods) in cortical neuron populations (Driessen at al. 2026; Vyazovskiy et al. 2009). By preventing mice from sleeping, then optogenetically stimulating the cortex to mimic these on/off periods during wake, the authors found that sleep pressure was relieved (Driessen at al. 2026). In essence, the negative effects of anthropogenically induced sleep deprivation can be corrected through anthropogenically induced cortical stimulation. While the study improved our understanding of sleep mechanisms, the central aim was to solve a problem the authors created. 

Understanding the world is important, but shifting the scientific perspective from trying to solve problems to trying to avoid causing them might be an avenue worth perusing.  

References

Adams, Scott. 1996. The Dilbert Principle: A Cubicle’s-Eye View of Bosses, Meetings, Management Fads & Other Workplace Afflictions. HarperBusiness.

Dong, Caroline Yifan, Chengcheng J. Fei, Bruce A. McCarl, David Zilberman, and Xingguo Wang. 2026. “Genetically Engineered Crop Adoption Support Yields and Cultivation under Climate Change.” Nature Climate Change 16 (10): 1214–21. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-026-02737-3.

Driessen, Kort, Fabio Squarcio, Giulio Tononi, and Chiara Cirelli. 2026. “Induction of Cortical on/off Periods in Awake Mice Fulfills Sleep Functions.” Nature Neuroscience 29 (8): 1954–65. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-026-02318-9.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 2023. “Sixth Assessment Report: Synthesis Report.” Press conference presentation. March 20, 2023. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/downloads/press/IPCC_AR6_SYR_SlideDeck.pdf.

Vyazovskiy, Vladyslav V., Umberto Olcese, Yaniv M. Lazimy, et al. 2009. “Cortical Firing and Sleep Homeostasis.” Neuron 63 (6): 865–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2009.08.024.