Howling Dogs and Shiny Pennies

People love chasing what sparkles and complaining about what nags. Back in the dotcom boom, just slapping an “e” in front of your name or a “.com” at the end was the shiny penny. Social. Big Data. Collaboration. Blockchain. AI. The pennies change, but the chase looks the same.

On the other side, there are the howling dogs—the problems people never stop talking about but won’t spend a dime to fix. I’ve told the porch story before: the dog howls because he’s sitting on a nail, but it doesn’t hurt enough to move. That’s what it’s like when customers complain loudly but never pay to solve it.

Put the two together and you get the biggest drains on clarity: shiny pennies and howling dogs.

The Howling Dog Problem

Life is full of what an old psychologist friend referred to as "tolerances." There's that drawer in your kitchen that sticks, or in my case, the slow leak in one tire on my car that I just keep pumping up instead of getting patched or replaced. 

I've come to call them Howling Dog problems. I described them in the Berkson's Bits section in Can You Do What You Say You Can Do. Here's a brief recap:

Two people are sitting on a porch.

First person: Why's your dog howling?

Second person: He's sitting on a nail.

First person: Why doesn't he get up?

Second person: It doesn't hurt THAT much.

People don't pay (much) to solve howling dog problems.

I see this all the time with startups. Founders get excited about solving what they believe is an important problem. They’ll even reference conversations with potential buyers who complain about it. But here’s the thing: there’s a big difference between what people complain about and what they’re willing to pay to fix.

That’s where the emotional side comes in. People can complain a LOT—loudly, repeatedly—and still never open their wallets. It’s easy to confuse noise with urgency, and urgency with value. They’re not the same.

The Shiny Penny Problem

Shiny pennies are the flip side of howling dogs. Instead of loud complaints, they’re flashy distractions. New tools. New features. New markets. They look irresistible because they sparkle with promise.

And nowhere is that more obvious than with trends.

In the dotcom boom, everything was “e” or “dotcom.” Just being online was the shiny penny. Few knew how to get real value out of it. Then came social. Then Big Data. Then collaboration. Blockchain. And now AI.

I’m not saying there’s no value in these shifts—far from it. Many have changed the way we live and work. The problem is when companies chase them for the sake of being first, or just to “keep up.” If it doesn’t connect to outcomes, it’s just motion dressed up as productivity.

The Common Thread

Howling dogs pull you into problems that don’t matter. Shiny pennies pull you toward solutions that don’t matter.

Clarity is knowing which problems not to solve and which opportunities not to chase.

The discipline is simple, but not easy:

1. What does success look like?

2. What would interfere with you getting there?

More often than not, the answers don’t point to the howling dog or the shiny penny. They point to the real work that drives outcomes.

Connecting the Dots

I wrote in People Like Bad Pizza that context shapes success. Sometimes “bad pizza” hits the spot, but only when it matches the moment. And in You’re Measuring the Wrong Thing, I argued that chasing the wrong signals is worse than having no signals at all.

Howling dogs and shiny pennies live in the same neighborhood. They distract us with noise or sparkle, pulling us away from the outcomes that actually matter.

The real question is never what’s loudest or what’s flashiest. It’s: What’s meaningful and valuable for the people you serve?

Berkson’s Bits

There is satisfaction in knowing you did something well. 

It could be a work of art, a particularly difficult problem at work, or a physical feat you've been working hard on. It could also be some pancakes, doing the dishes, or taking care of your family or a loved one.

In our social media broadcast world where so many people choose to share their accomplishments, there's times when I take special satisfaction in just me knowing. No one else needs to know. 

I don't know that everyone else experiences this. I hope they do. I hope you do.

What I'm Reading...

This week I'm calling this "What should I be reading/listening/watching..." I'd love to hear from you. To a large extent you ARE the content you consume. What have you come across recently that has changed your perspective or helped you bettter navigate this complex world?

So the next time someone’s howling about a nail or waving around the latest shiny penny, pause. Ask yourself: Does this actually move us closer to success, or just sideways into distraction?

I wish I could say I’ve always made the right call. I haven’t. I’ve chased my share of complaints that didn’t matter and been dazzled by more than a few pennies. (Some of them weren’t even that shiny in hindsight.)

We all face howling dogs and shiny pennies—at work, at home, everywhere. The trick isn’t ignoring them. It’s learning to see through them, so you can spend your energy on what truly matters.

Looking forward to continuing the conversation...

Alan