This Feels Like a Different Problem. It’s Not!

I used to think my job was solving complex problems.

Now I spend a lot of time explaining things to a two-year-old who fundamentally disagrees with me.

At first, these felt like very different skill sets.

One involves strategy, planning, alignment, timelines.

The other involves snacks, patience, and negotiating with someone who just threw a shoe because I peeled a banana incorrectly.

But the more I do both, the more I realize:

It’s the same problem.

You are trying to get someone to:

• understand something they didn’t ask to understand

• accept a reality they didn’t choose

• and move forward anyway

At work, we call this alignment.

At home, it looks like convincing a toddler that bedtime is not a personal attack.

Different setting. Same structure.

You break things down.
You repeat yourself.
You simplify.
You try again.

You realize quickly that logic alone doesn’t work.

It never really did.

People don’t change their minds because something is correct.
They change when it feels acceptable.

Which is slightly concerning when you realize this applies to:

• organizations

• adults

• and very small people who refuse to wear shoes

So you build systems.

At work: frameworks, timelines, priorities.
At home: routines, repetition, “we always do this.”

And slowly, over time, things start to stick.

Not because you explained it perfectly.
But because you repeated it enough.

Half of what we call “teaching” is just structured repetition.

Which means half of what we call “complex problems” are not actually complex.

They’re just:

• misunderstood

• resisted

• or repeated inconsistently

This feels like a different problem.

It’s not.