# On the Need for a 50-Amp Fuse By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2024-03-18 Life is full of frustrations. Many can be avoided. Those that can’t can sometimes be lessened. Those that can neither be reduced nor avoided must be endured. Through the process of confronting frustrations, one typically learns something of value. Frustrations reveal something about situations and something about oneself. Both insights are helpful. A fuse protects a system from overload and short-circuit faults by cutting off the power to the electronics. It does this by melting or vaporizing a fuse element so that there is no physical conductive path through which the current can flow. In short, a fuse is designed to “blow” to save the system. A fuse metaphor was used in the Rolling Stones song, _You Can’t Always Get What You Want_, in which Mick Jagger sang, “I went down to the demonstration, to get my fair share of abuse. Singing ‘We’re gonna vent our frustration. If we don’t, we’re gonna blow a fifty-amp fuse.” A system benefits from the incorporation of fuses. Reducing the stress load of a system is an important design feature. Often the stress load of an organizational system can be reduced through solidarity. Stress can be transferred within the system to places where it can more easily be discharged. Sometimes, through the process, what was irksome can become comedic. As the refrain of the same Rolling Stones song extols, “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you’ll find, you get what you need.” Through solidarity, a system can let the fuse operate as it should and blow under the temporary load of additional stress. Reversing the refrain, instead of getting what one needs, one might find that one gets what one wants. #### Related Items [[Frustration]] [[Life]] [[Systems Thinking]] [[Insights]] [[Solidarity]]