You need to do something simple. Update an address. Get a document. Ask a straightforward question. It should take five minutes. Three hours later, you're still working on it. There were forms. There were verifications. There was waiting. The simple thing became an odyssey.

This happens constantly. Tasks that should be quick have become complicated. What once required one step now requires twelve. The friction isn't your imagination; the systems themselves have grown more complex.

You're not slow. Everything has genuinely gotten harder. The easy thing became difficult when no one was watching.

The Problem People Keep Running Into

Simple tasks have become multi-step processes. Want to change your bank address? You might need to log in, verify your identity, navigate to settings, find the right option, enter the new information, confirm via text, and wait for processing. Each step is small; together they consume an afternoon.

Waiting periods multiply steps. "Allow 3-5 business days" appears constantly. Tasks that could be instant are batched, queued, and delayed. The total time for anything becomes days or weeks, not minutes. You wait for systems that could respond immediately.

Prerequisites stack up. Before you can do thing A, you need document B, which requires verification C, which depends on having completed process D. What seemed like one task reveals itself as many. The dependency chain is invisible until you hit it.

Errors compound the problem. One mistake means starting over. One field filled wrong triggers a rejection. The system offers no forgiveness, only more steps.

How Modern Systems Created This

Complexity accumulated for reasons that seemed sensible in isolation:

Security added steps. Identity theft and fraud led to more verification. Two-factor authentication, security questions, and document requirements all add friction that slows everything down. Protection for the few becomes burden for the many.

Liability concerns added procedures. Organizations protect themselves from risk by adding processes. Each step creates a record, a checkpoint, a moment where something was verified. This protection for them is burden for you. The paperwork proves they weren't at fault.

Cost-cutting shifted work to users. What employees used to do, customers now do themselves. Self-service means you fill out the form, you upload the document, you navigate the system. The company saved money; you spend time. The labor didn't disappear; it just moved to you.

Technology enabled complexity. When processes were manual, simplicity had value. Digital systems can add unlimited steps at no cost to the organization. Each field on a form, each screen in a flow, adds to user burden while costing the company nothing. The marginal cost of complexity is zero.

Regulations accumulated. Each new rule adds a new requirement. Compliance means more forms, more disclosures, more confirmations. The intent may be protection; the effect is friction.

Why It Keeps Getting Worse

Each incident justifies more process. A single fraud case leads to new verification steps for everyone. A complaint triggers a new confirmation screen. Problems are solved by adding, rarely by simplifying. Removal is risky; addition is safe.

Organizations don't experience the friction they create. The people designing processes don't go through them. Customer complaints about complexity are abstract compared to internal pressures for security and compliance. The pain is invisible to those causing it.

Systems don't coordinate. Each organization optimizes for itself. The bank has its process, the government has another, your employer has a third. You're the only one who experiences all of them, but no one designs for the total burden. Your day is a patchwork of other people's systems.

And there's no reward for simplicity. A company that makes things easy for customers gets no competitive advantage if competitors are equally complex. The industry standard for friction creeps upward with no pressure to reduce it. The race is to the bottom.

Old requirements never sunset. The form field added ten years ago for a problem that no longer exists remains because no one deletes things. Processes accumulate like sediment.

How People Cope Today

People learn to batch administrative tasks. Rather than doing small things as they arise, they accumulate them and dedicate blocks of time to fighting through systems. This is inefficient but necessary. Admin day becomes a thing.

Many accept that "simple" tasks aren't simple and budget time accordingly. What should take five minutes gets an hour in the schedule, because experience has taught that the estimate is always wrong. Pessimism becomes practical.

Some pay premium prices for services that skip the complexity. Expedited processing, concierge services, and premium tiers exist because people will pay to avoid friction. Simplicity becomes a luxury good.

Others develop expertise. They learn the shortcuts, the hidden phone numbers, the magic words that bypass the maze. This knowledge is valuable and rare. The workaround becomes the skill.

The complexity of simple tasks reflects how organizations have transferred burdens to individuals without coordinating the total load. Each added step makes sense from inside the organization. Experienced from outside, the accumulation is crushing. Until someone starts measuring and valuing user time, tasks will keep getting longer. The simple thing will keep getting harder.