[cadamsdotcom]

It’s great to put names to these concepts but it’s a false dichotomy. It doesn't follow that just because you need to eliminate the worst, that you need to also encourage the best.

There are certainly problems where you want to eliminate (or minimize) the worst outcomes while also facilitating the hit-it-out-of-the-park game-changers. Solving poverty shouldn’t preclude providing people opportunities to get rich by changing the world for the better.

There are also problems where it doesn’t matter what happens at either end. Show up to marathon for example and no one minds how well you do - just to give it a go is great! There’s no certification as a marathon runner and there’s also gold medals for the fastest marathon runners.

All in all this article is arguing that problems can be plotted on a single axis of strong or weak problems, but it’s more like a 2x2 matrix (or a 2-dimensional area if you want gradations.)