Silver Buckshot

Why complex problems need plural solutions

For a long time, I wanted a silver bullet.

The kind of solution that ends the story. The thing you do that finally fixes it.

The one breakthrough, the one strategy, the one message that changes everything.

A neat conclusion in a messy world.

This is how many of us are taught to think, especially in tech spaces.

There’s the solution. The innovation. The fix.

As if every problem were a software bug waiting for the right line of code.

But studying climate activists taught me something different.

In climate circles, there’s a phrase we return to often:

Silver buckshot, not silver bullet.

Because the problems we face aren’t werewolves, they are ecosystems.

And you don’t solve ecosystems, you tend them.

The Wisdom in Buckshot

Buckshot is not elegant.

It is not clean.

It doesn’t offer the satisfaction of a single, targeted shot.

It’s scatter: tiny fragments all aiming in the same general direction.

Each pellet on its own is insufficient.

But together, they change the trajectory.

This is how meaningful change actually happens.

Not through one perfect solution, but through many small ones working in tandem.

Not through a single hero, but through distributed efforts.

Local action. Policy change. Storytelling.

Restoration. Resistance. Adaptation. Healing.

In systems thinking, this is called a solution space: not a point, not a line, but a landscape.

A set of interventions, layered and evolving, that together address a problem too big for any one thing to hold.

Why Silver Bullets Fail Us

The myth of the silver bullet is seductive. It promises ease, clarity, resolution.

But it also breeds delay.

It says, “don’t act yet, the real solution is coming.”

It keeps us waiting for the thing that will make everything else unnecessary.

It also isolates us. If there is only one right answer, then what if mine isn’t it?

I’ve felt that paralysis before: the belief that if I didn’t pick the exact right thing to work on, I was wasting my energy. The weight of that pressure is unbearable. And unnecessary.

The truth is, there is no single right thing.

There is only the next right thing, in relationship with all the other right things.

Silver bullet thinking also reinforces a kind of saviorism: an obsession with the individual, the breakthrough, the startup that will “fix” what’s wrong.

But climate change, like injustice, like grief, like healing, is not a thing to be fixed. It’s something to be met over and over again, from many angles.

The Strength of Pluralism

What buckshot thinking offers us is not perfection, but participation.

It tells us: your piece matters. Even if it is small. Especially if it is small.

Because we don’t need perfect answers, we need many imperfect ones aligned in motion.

So, we can let go of the idea that we’re looking for the solution.

Let’s look instead at the whole solution space and find the piece that’s ours to tend.

If you want to add your voice to the conversation, this is a good place to do it. I write every week, and I read the comments with care.

Scatter with Intention

Scattering means trusting that no one act will be enough, but doing it anyway.

Scattering means aiming wide, showing up small, and believing in collective aim.

There is wisdom in that kind of scatter.

There is power in not knowing which of your seeds will take root, but planting anyway.

In a world trained to look for snipers, be the buckshot.

Scatter wisely. Scatter wildly. Trust that enough of us, together, is enough.

This is a space for reflection, not just information. If something struck you, or you’re holding something you want to share, my inbox is open. Hit ‘reply’ or send me a message below.

Further reading -

you are your best thing

Tide Pool Thinking

Pollinators of Privilege