Solving problems we wish we had

There's a great line from Heather McGaw toward the end of the latest episode of 99 Percent Invisible:

Sometimes " we can start to solve problems that we wish were problems because they're easy to solve.

Reminds me of an excerpt from Richard Weaver's book Ideas Have Consequences:

Obsession, according to the canons of psychology, occurs when an innocuous idea is substituted for a painful one. The victim simply avoids recognizing the thing which will hurt. We have seen that the most painful confession for the modern egoist to make is that there is a center or responsibility. He has escaped it by taking his direction with reference to the smallest points. " The obsession, however, is a source of great comfort to the obsessed.