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About this quote

What does it mean?
Solutions to problems often create new problems, reflecting the interconnected nature of human affairs.
In plain terms
Fixing one problem often creates another one.
What can you take from it?
Expect trade-offs when solving problems.

Where it applies

  • policy reform
  • engineering
  • management

Putting it to work

  • anticipate side effects
  • test solutions
  • plan for contingencies

Questions to consider

  • What new issues might this cause?
  • Is there a better balance?

Another view

Some solutions do offer net benefits without immediate downsides.

More from Niccolo Machiavelli

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  2. The demands of a free populace, too, are very seldom harmful to liberty, for they are due either to the populace being oppressed or to the suspicious that it i…

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  3. The people resemble a wild beast, which, naturally fierce and accustomed to live in the woods, has been brought up, as it were, in a prison and in servitude, a…

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