Philosophy November 19, 2022

Predicting the Unpredictable

Predicting the Unpredictable

It is fascinating how we like to predict the future when we have no capability to do so.

We see vaticination everywhere: five-year financial growth projection, unemployment rate, commodity price. We overestimate our capability to predict when we have none. But, it is easy to get away with it. Whenever we get it right, we ascribe it to our insights. Whenever we get it wrong, we blame the unforeseen situation.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb put it beautifully in his book, Black Swan. Who would have anticipated the advent of technology that has grossly voided all past forecasts?

Stop trying to foresee when we can’t see the unforeseen.

You may also like...

Habitual Tasks

Floss daily and you will appreciate its benefits after five years. The same goes for exercising,...

No Easy Path to Extraordinary

You contemplate on a decision to wake up earlier to work out before going to office....

Long Lost Relationship

Anthropologists suggested we can only maintain about 150 social relationships at a time. That's quite a...

Lasting Discipline Builds Characters

Humans are myopic of their future-self. We favor what we can gain immediately. Building a discipline...