I don’t like the term “necessary evil.” When someone describes something in that way, they’re often putting a lot of work into the “necessary” part, insinuating that it can’t be changed or even challenged. “Yeah, no one likes the payroll system, but it’s a necessary evil. People have to get paid, you know?” Consider the defeatist, fixed-mindset view that sentence proposes!
I prefer to use the term “load-bearing flaw.” In the example above, the current payroll system is bad, and we all know it’s bad. It’s a flaw. But flawed or not, it’s currently holding up a lot of critical infrastructure – if we just ripped it out without consideration, no one would get paid and we couldn’t run the business.
But that term leaves open the possibility of careful and considered change. If you remodel a house, you can move the load-bearing walls. You just have to be careful when you do so and make sure the weight is supported during the transition, the new layout works, etc. It’s harder, but it’s doable. And it’s worth it, if the new layout is that much better.
No evil is necessary, no matter how entrenched it may be. We can, and should, do better – and adopt a growth mindset about it.
The Opportunity Machine 