Issues—the word

At Geist, we’ve got issues with issues.

Use the word issues with care. Like initiatives and outcomes, it’s become flabby and shapeless from being stretched too far, as in this sentence written by an art-gallery curator:

His painting pushed past the Impressionist preoccupation with light, movement and time to include issues of space and form.

The word issue comes from the Latin word meaning “flow out.” So one can raise an issue and debate an issue; but issue is not necessarily a synonym for concern or question or subject or idea or argument. And a problem remains a problem, not an issue, as the computer support people would so euphemistically like to have it.