Problem Relativity. The size of a problem depends on where you stand

Special relativity removed the universal clock. Observers in relative motion measure different times and lengths, and both are right.

Problems work the same way. I call it problem relativity: a problem’s size depends on the observer’s frame. Their time horizon, resources, knowledge and what they have survived.

A missed flight is a disaster to a yearly flyer and a shrug to a weekly one. A failed startup ends one person and is a hard Tuesday for a serial founder. Same event, different measurement.

Epictetus said people are disturbed not by things but by their judgements about things. Relativity adds the useful part: you can change frames on purpose.

Three moves I use. Zoom out in time: will this matter in five years? In scale: who has solved one ten times this size? Swap observers: how would someone with more resources, or less fear, measure it?

Daniel Kahneman’s focusing illusion: nothing in life is as important as you think it is while you are thinking about it. Changing frames breaks the spell.

Relativity has invariants: light’s speed is the same for every observer. Some problems are too: illness, loss, real danger.

The point is not to shrink everything, but to tell invariant problems from ones that only look large from one bad seat.