These are best described as either imagined or arbitrarily elevated to a position far loftier than they deserve.

We all have problems before us that deserve high levels of concern and should be viewed through a lens of urgency. But instead of doing this, we opt rather to tackle the low hanging fruit, such as reorganizing photo albums or polishing silverware that won’t be used until Thanksgiving – as a way to distract ourselves from what really deserves our immediate attention. At least we’re taking some action, something is getting solved or done right? Well yes, but mostly no.

Fake problems give rise to a sort of fake reality that low-level issues in our lives should be inched up on our priority list. The truth though is that doing this takes our focus away from the problems that are real and actually are a threat.