Pickle Jar Syndrome
I wrote this back in 2017 and it went viral on Quora with 100k+ views and Medium.
I've observed this within my own companies and myself at times and I’m republishing this as it still rings true today:
There’s a built-in condition or instinct it seems, within all of us that I call the Pickle Jar Syndrome and it works like this:
You see someone trying to open a jar of pickles; they’re clearly struggling. You immediately think, “I can do that” and then reach to grab the pickle jar and tell them that you can do it….. and fail. It’s stuck. You try harder and … nope, won’t open. You shrug it off and shake your head thinking “Hmmm, what in the hell is the matter with that jar?…”
This essentially happens daily throughout companies. You see some area of difficulty or some problem and essentially think, “I know what to do…” and then you inject yourself to some degree, try and solve it, and ultimately end up in approximately the same place that the last person was at without making it actually better.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Robert Cornish Publication to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.