The friction fix
Cutting through bureaucracy, one annoying form at a time
Sludge: What Stops Us from Getting Things Done and What to Do about It | Cass R. Sunstein
“It is important to emphasize that as a practical matter, the victims of sludge are often the poorest among us. A central reason is that if you are poor, you have to focus on a wide range of immediately pressing problems. If the government is asking poor people to navigate a complex system or to fill out a lot of forms, they might be especially likely to give up.”
I'm going to start with a confession: I almost didn't finish reading Cass Sunstein's latest book. Not because it's bad—quite the opposite. But because every page made me angrier about all the bureaucratic nonsense we put up with daily.
You know what I'm talking about. The online form that crashes after you've spent twenty minutes filling it out. The government office that requires three forms of ID to do something that should take five minutes. The insurance company that makes you call, then transfers you four times, then tells you to fill out a form online that—surprise!—doesn't work.
Sunstein calls this "sludge," and in Sludge: What Stops Us from Getting Things Done and What to Do about It, he doesn't just complain about it. He explains why it exists, how it hurts us more than we realize, and what we can actually do about it.
The systems are our enemies
If you've read Sunstein's work on “nudges,”—the small design tweaks that help people make better choices, think of sludge as the evil twin. Where nudges make life easier (like auto-enrolling you in a 401k), sludge makes everything harder.
Here's the thing: sludge isn't always intentional. Sometimes it's just lazy design. Sometimes it's fear: organizations so worried about fraud or liability that they create elaborate hoops for everyone to jump through. Sometimes it's simply old systems that nobody's bothered to fix.
But intentional or not, the result is the same: you waste time, energy, and often money trying to do things that should be simple.
The cost complexity
Sunstein's big insight is that effort costs money. We track financial expenses down to the penny, but we ignore the price of complexity and confusion. Think about it this way,if a company charged you $50 to access a service you'd already paid for, you'd be furious. But if they make you spend three hours on the phone to access that same service? Well, that's…"customer service"?
Except those three hours have a cost. If you make $15 an hour, that's $45 of your time. If you're hourly and have to take time off work, it's $45 you didn't earn. If you're caring for kids or elderly parents, it's time you can't get back.
And here's the kicker: this burden falls hardest on people who can least afford it. That complex application process that's annoying to someone with time and resources? It can be impossible for someone working two jobs or dealing with a family crisis.
Where sludge lives and thrives
The worst offenders? Government agencies, healthcare systems, and big corporations. Not always because they're evil (well…) but because they're scared, lazy, or stuck with systems built in 1995.
Take healthcare. How many times have you filled out the same information on multiple forms in the same doctor's office? How many times have you called your insurance company and been transferred to five different people who all ask for the same information?
Or government services. During the pandemic, some states processed unemployment claims in days. Others took months. The difference wasn't money or staffing—it was whether their systems were designed for humans or for bureaucrats.
The sludge audit: fix stuff
As a practical solution, Sunstein proposes “sludge audits,” where organizations map out their processes and ask “Is this step necessary? Could we do this better? Are real people actually able to complete this?”
It sounds obvious, but most organizations don't, or won’t, do this. They add requirements over time without removing any elements. (They should read Subtract, by Leidy Klotz.) They design processes for their convenience, not yours.
Some fixes are embarrassingly simple. For example, California cut the time to apply for food assistance from 45 minutes to 15 minutes mostly by eliminating redundant questions. Fraud didn't increase. Eligible people received help faster.
Why getting rid of sludge matters
As someone who's spent time in both politics and business, I can tell you that sludge is often a feature, not a bug. Make voting complicated enough, and fewer people vote. Make canceling a subscription hard enough, and fewer people cancel. Make unsubscribing frustrating enough, and our—certainly mine—email inboxes overflow. Make accessing benefits bureaucratic enough, and fewer people access them.
This isn't conspiracy theory stuff; it's basic human behavior. When you make something difficult, fewer people do it. Period.
The COVID pandemic made this reality painfully clear. States with streamlined systems got help to people quickly. States with sludgy systems left people waiting months for unemployment benefits they desperately needed.
What’s the fix?
First, we must recognize sludge when you see it. That “required” field on a form that doesn't actually need to be required? Remove it. The phone tree that makes you press 12 buttons to talk to a human? Eliminate it. The 19-page terms of service for a simple app? Gone.
Second, call out sludge when you see it. Businesses respond to feedback, especially when you frame it as “this costs customers." Government agencies respond to public pressure, especially when you frame it as “this is stopping residents from accessing services they're entitled to.”
Third, vote with your wallet and your feet when you can. Companies that respect your time deserve your business. Politicians who simplify government processes deserve your vote.
The bottom Line
I’m glad I stuck it out and finished Sludge. Sunstein's book isn't simply about bureaucracy; it's about respect. Systems that waste your time are systems that don't respect you. Organizations that make simple things complicated are telling you that their convenience matters more than yours.
Don't accept this. Demand better.
Sunstein's book shines a bright light on a hidden tax and gives us the vocabulary and the tools to do something about it.
If you're tired of systems that seem designed to frustrate rather than help, this book is essential reading. It's not just about understanding the problem; it's about fixing it.
This is a playbook we need.