Plans are worthless, but planning is everything
Reflection
Yeah, this is a long one, but I really really like this from Derek Muller (Veritasium channel on YouTube). One of the things that really stuck with me from this video is the concept that “the effort is the algorithm”. I think it’s the same thing that Eisenhower was capturing in this quote. You’re not going to perfectly predict all of the context in which your future activity (or product) will exist in. (It’s part of why the world largely moved away from waterfall software development.) But, by having made the plan, you’ll have thought through the complexities, the tradeoffs, the inflection points that will require attention. And having done that work, you’ll be better prepared to meet the reality. Even with your imperfect predictions.