The Bottleneck at 91%
The vibration starts in my palm before it reaches my ears, a frantic, mechanical buzzing that cuts through the silence of my desk at precisely 4:51 PM. It is the kind of buzz that feels heavy with consequence. On the screen, a progress bar for a high-res video export is frozen at exactly 91%, mocking me with its stillness. I pick up the phone. It is Sarah, the CEO of our largest account-a company that handles 1,001 transactions an hour and has been with us since 2021. She is not calling to talk about the weather. She is calling because her CFO just had a $500,001 payment declined by our ‘intelligent’ fraud prevention system.
“Miles,” she says, her voice tight with the kind of calm that precedes a Category 5 hurricane, “I am standing in front of a vendor who thinks we are insolvent because your software decided our money wasn’t good enough today. Do you have any idea how that looks?”
I stare at the frozen 91% on my screen. I feel the same frustration. A system that is supposed to facilitate progress has instead become a bottleneck. We built these walls to keep the monsters out, but in our haste, we forgot to build a gate for the kings. This is the tragic
