participation is rare
All problems have bystanders and participants.
A bystander is a mere witness to the problem and how it unfolds. The assumption of a bystander is that humanity — some person minus them — will rise to the occasion to make things better. Until then, a bystander waits.
A participant eagerly and rapidly creates, learns, and creates again with the intention of giving way to improved outcomes. In exchange, she earns a stake in how the problem unfolds and may very well be the reason things get better at all.
The irony of participation (and why it’s so rare) is that many are comfortable deferring responsibility to the unspecified person who is surely doing the participating and as a result very few end up participating. A problem with few participants is at risk of staying exactly where it is — just as unmet, just as unsolved.
If you are not okay with the prospect of an important problem staying in the same place, the best chance for progress is your participation — many people, as it turns out, are counting on people like you (who won’t wait) to arrive at this decision.
