Systems.
I came back from ASU+GSV Summit… intellectually energized but still exhausted …… and straight into fraud.
No transition. No recovery window. Just:
Hours on hold with the bank.
A compromised credit card.
$1,800+ in fraudulent charges.
Someone, somewhere, furnishing their office (or home), and even buying Facebook ads, with my card. That card was used only at the Manchester Grand Hyatt. Beautiful hotel by-the-way…
Meanwhile, life did not pause. Emails. Research. Meetings.
Interviewing students. Helping with internships. Planning a launch. Running a business.
This is the part we rarely write about.
Building something real is not just ideas and inspiration.
It is often: friction. Interruptions. Unexpected problems.
You don’t get to pause. You just must keep going.
What surprised me most though, was not the fraud itself. It was how much time it took to try to fix it.
It was hours that could have been spent building, creating, moving forward.
Instead, they were spent navigating a system.
On hold. Explaining. Repeating. Waiting.
We talk a lot about innovation. We talk about growth. We talk about productivity.
But we rarely talk about all those little frictions.
Navigation Systems: Friction Is Not Neutral
These “small” disruptions are not small. They compound. They redirect energy.
They delay progress and even create invisible costs.
And they affect people who are already doing complex, meaningful work.
Entrepreneurs. Educators. Physicians. Builders.
Time is not just time. It is often a lost momentum. I unfortunately experienced it many times in one form or another. This was just one of many reminders that brought up some vivid memories from the past.
Behind Every System Is a Human Being
Every system is experienced by a person. Not in theory, but in real time.
When systems are inefficient what happens is that people wait, repeat themselves, lose time and even lose trust. One may argue that this is not just an inconvenience. It is in a way, a design failure.
Design Is Not Optional
We often treat systems as fixed. But reality is that they are not. They are designed.
What that means is that they can be improved and simplified and human centered.
Design matters, efficiency matters, and protecting people’s time and trust matters even more.
This Is Bigger Than Fraud
This experience was not about a single incident. For me, it was a reminder of past interruptions and energy drains. Systems shape human experience.
The same principles apply everywhere: healthcare, education, business, technology and even families and communities. If we want better outcomes, we need better systems. And this all makes me think that we don’t necessarily need more activity. What we need is less friction. Because behind every system, there is a person trying to move forward
How does this connect to our work at Indelible Learning?
And why does this matter for the next generation?
At Indelible Learning, teaching systems thinking and decision making is exactly the work we do.
We train young minds to think in systems, to understand how decisions, structures, and environments shape outcomes. We teach them not just to learn content, but to see patterns and what real careers do.
We immerse our students in the role of real-life professionals and give them meaningful work.
We teach our students skills to improve the systems they will one day lead.
Because the future will not be built by those who memorize.
It will be built by those who understand how the world actually works.
And know how to navigate it and improve it.
If you want to learn more about what we do, join our monthly Masterclass.
Dr. Jasminka Vukanovic-Criley MD, FACP, FHM is a multiple award-winning physician, hospitalist, healthcare & education innovator & Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCLA. She is a career mentor & advisor to undergraduate, graduate & postgraduate students & faculty across medicine, science & education. As Founder & CEO of Indelible Learning, Dr. Criley leads a systems-based approach to learning grounded in the belief that we grow geniuses by making complex systems visible, before real-world decisions carry irreversible consequences. Her research focuses on designing evidence-driven digital games & simulations that help people see, question, & improve systems across health, civics, science & human behavior. Dr Criley is a sought-after speaker, a founding Board member of Physician’s Weekly & an advocate for learning experiences that build judgment, agency & healthier institutions. She can be reached on X at @criley_md and at www.linkedin.com/in/jasminka-criley-md