Four careers over 50+ years. USMC, engineering, consulting, education. Past twenty years have focused on helping leaders become and remain relevant during times of change.
MindPrep 283 – Bets on the Future
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Reader Every decision you make today is a bet about the future. Sometimes the future is near and sometimes the future is far. Sometimes our decisions produce that results we want; and sometimes they don’t. It’s always “the present” when you decide, but every decision plays out in the future. If you want to make better decisions in the “here and now” you should do two things: 1. (Re)confirm your assumptions underlying the decision. 2. Think about the unintended consequences of the decision, not just what you want to happen. Sometimes the unintended consequences are good, sometimes not-so-good. Question: Regarding a pending decision, what assumptions must be true for you to succeed? And, what could go wrong? Happy New Year, Bill |
Bill @ MindPrep
Four careers over 50+ years. USMC, engineering, consulting, education. Past twenty years have focused on helping leaders become and remain relevant during times of change.
Reader, My beta readers for Navigating a Wicked World have given me plenty of solid feedback, so I’m busy with “the book.” This week’s Reflection is short and sweet (I hope). Many of you know that I use the example of a radar screen in my workshops and ask participants to consider what’s on the edge. Here are a few things that I’ve noticed this week and want to bring to your attention. Remember 2008? Mortgage and banking systems got in a lot of trouble due to their “financial engineering.”...
Reader, Here are a few stories from yesterday and today that may apply to tomorrow. Me and my slide rule After my “military sabbatical” in the mid-1960s I returned to the college campus to finish my education. I decided to study engineering and was on campus when TI, Casio, and HP introduced calculators. A big question at the time was “Is using a calculator rather than a slide rule a form of cheating?” Well, no. But yes. Regarding exams, it was simply a tool that made precisions calculations...
Reader, I was on a call Friday with a financial analyst, and we spent a bit of time wondering about the similarities of the 1929 Market Crash and the probability of a recession in 2026. Certainly, the specifics are different, but are there some similarities? Yes. That conversation got me thinking about bad and good surprises over the last 100 years that, just maybe, should not have been so surprising. Here are a few for your consideration. Stories of Surprises 1929 Market Crash: A LOT of...