And the system made you that way.
The gap between how things should work and how they actually work isn't dysfunction. It's a product. Someone is selling it. Someone is buying it. That someone might be you.
In Saudi Arabia, I used to watch the news.
Every night, American broadcasts said we weren't flying spy missions over Iraq.
Then I'd walk outside and watch the U-2 planes take off.
The gap between what's said and what's real isn't an accident. It's a product.
"Someone is always selling the gap."
The last thirty years created a new kind of worker. Not the people who make things. Not the people who sell things.
The people who make sure the people who make things can talk to the people who sell things.
Project Managers
Scrum Masters
Business Analysts
Program Managers
Integration Specialists
Change Managers
Thirty years ago, most of these titles didn't exist. Now they're entire career tracks.
35%
of middle manager time
spent on internal coordination
57%
of knowledge worker time
communication vs. actual work
Ask yourself this:
If someone built a tool that did your job perfectly, instantly, for free, would you celebrate?
Be honest.
"My job is about relationships."
Translation: The system is so fragmented that human diplomacy holds it together.
"You can't automate judgment."
Translation: The system requires constant human intervention to function.
"I add value in the gray areas."
Translation: There are so many gray areas that navigating them is a career.
FINANCIAL
Open your retirement account. Look at what you own. Healthcare stocks. Banks. Enterprise software vendors whose complexity justifies coordinator jobs.
Your retirement literally depends on friction continuing.
PROFESSIONAL
How many hours do you spend creating value versus coordinating? How many meetings are about work versus doing work?
More than half your job is managing friction between particles.
PSYCHOLOGICAL
The workarounds. The unwritten rules. The "how things actually work around here." That knowledge took years. It's your competitive advantage.
And it's worthless in a simpler system.
The Connection Era is ending. The infrastructure built for expensive connection is becoming friction.
The thing that made you valuable is becoming the thing that makes you replaceable.
You didn't choose to be invested in the waste.
The system enrolled you. Made you complicit without asking permission.
Understanding this isn't blame. It's the first step toward seeing clearly.
The full chapter goes deeper. Much deeper.
From the upcoming book
The Growing Pains Index
Chapter 2: You're Invested in the Waste
The GPI diagnostic reveals where you're structurally locked in. See the friction you're protecting.
TAKE THE GPI DIAGNOSTICChapter 1. How the things that work become the things that hold you back.
EXPLORE →The economics behind organizational waste. Someone profits from the gap.
EXPLORE →Chapter 5. The pattern of organizational evolution. You can't skip phases.
EXPLORE →