Problem Domains
Which problem territory contains the value, forces, and actors you need to understand?
Use this map to choose a territory. Use Diagnose a Problem when you already have a live signal and need a method.
Value Chain
human need -> institutions and incentives -> technology and capital -> outcomes -> feedback
A problem can enter anywhere in this chain and surface somewhere else. The domain pages show the terrain; they do not prove that a visible symptom is the active constraint.
Domain Landscape
| Territory | Value at stake | Forces and failure modes | Route |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI | Agency, trustworthy intelligence, attention | Alignment, automation, model power, concentrated control | AI Problems |
| Business | Useful production, customer value, durable capability | Incentives, coordination, execution, extraction | Business Problems |
| Crypto | Open coordination, ownership, settlement | Governance, security, speculation, adoption | Crypto Problems |
| Economics | Shared prosperity and resource allocation | Externalities, inequality, monetary and market design | Economics Problems |
| Financialization | Capital serving production | Rent seeking, leverage, short-term extraction | Financialization |
| Governance | Legitimate collective action | Power, incentives, information, coordination failure | Governance Problems |
| Science | Reliable discovery and cumulative truth | Funding, publication incentives, reproducibility | Science Problems |
| Society | Human flourishing, trust, belonging | Attention capture, polarization, institutional decay | Societal Problems |
| Technology decisions | Capability without avoidable lock-in | Architecture, cost, timing, reversibility | Technology Decisions |
Control Points
Across these territories, look for beneficiaries, operators, owners, rule-makers, funders, and people who absorb the downside. Useful control points often sit in goals, rules, incentives, information flows, ownership, capacity, standards, and handoffs—not in the loudest symptom.
Forces
- Coupling: a local change shifts outcomes elsewhere.
- Delay: evidence arrives after the decision window.
- Incentives: rational local behaviour creates harmful system results.
- Concentration: one actor controls rules, information, or infrastructure.
- Feedback: reinforcing loops amplify gains or damage; balancing loops constrain them.
- Framing: the declared problem protects one beneficiary while hiding another.
Useful Questions
- Who benefits if this gap closes, and who benefits if it remains?
- Where is the signal observed, and where might it be generated?
- Which rule, incentive, information flow, ownership boundary, capacity limit, standard, or handoff shapes the outcome?
- What evidence would distinguish an active constraint from a downstream symptom?
- Is a specific signal ready for the problem diagnostic loop?
Limits
This map identifies places to look. It does not rank domains, establish causality, or authorize intervention. Domain importance is contextual, and complex systems can defeat confident root-cause stories.
Changes my mind: a domain route no longer helps a reader identify the value at stake, controlling forces, and next useful question.
Context
- Problems — choose between diagnosis, domains, questions, and decisions.
- Systems Thinking — model feedback, boundaries, and emergence.
- Priorities — rank an evidenced quest against other uses of attention.
- Perspective — test whether the domain map excludes a consequential view.
Questions
Next question: Which territory contains the beneficiary, control point, and evidence needed to investigate this signal?
- Which actor controls the rule, information, incentive, or handoff?
- Which domain boundary could be hiding the upstream cause?