Fast Changing World: Has Long Term Planning Become Obsolete?
At times, I find myself wondering whether or not I am actually hampered by the fact that I grew up in an era of more stability and long-term thinking than we have today.
These days, it feels like things are constantly changing and we have to be prepared for the world to turn upside down next week and then turn right side up again the week after that. Nothing can be relied upon to last. Meanwhile, all manners of disruptive inventions and technologies come along and render what we were relying on three weeks ago almost instantly obsolete... or do they?
I tend to be a long term thinker.
From what I gather — at least from simple observation — most people in this strange world of ours are not. At least not any more.
Should I Even BOTHER to Plan, Long Term?
The reason I find myself now "thinking out loud" with these words is that I was sitting in my office doing some bookkeeping because we just closed out the first half of the year, and I was contemplating our five year plan and beyond, in terms of business projects, and in terms of investing.
Then I thought to myself ”Has what I'm doing here just become completely irrelevant? Am I just wasting my time by thinking beyond the time horizon of maybe next week or possibly next month?”
I'd like to think I'm not.
I'd like to think — for example — that I can project five years out into the future, and still list Hive as one of my "side gigs" for a bit of potential income. Certainly, I'd like to list Hive as an ongoing investment.
I'm certainly open to the possibility that maybe I'm just showing my age because I'm sitting here and actually planning forward towards ”retirement.” Occasionally, I get the impression people don't even plan for that anymore because who knows what "work" will look like, and who knows what money will look like, and who knows what anything will look like by the time they get ready to retire?
And yet?
I have a real difficulty with adopting a strategy of ”Oh, everything is so uncertain so I'm not going to make any plans whatsoever... and just wing it as I go along.”
I tend to be a planner, and a goal setter. I have found that without a plan, I tend to not take what I am working on very seriously, and will most likely just blow it off altogether. When I have a solid plan, then I tend to doggedly work towards whatever goals I set for myself.
The whole living moment to moment and then adapting to whatever life sends our way in the next 30 minutes approach just doesn't work for me.
In some ways I have a feeling I actually have reality on my side. Whereas it can certainly be argued that “something crazy” might happen in course of the next three weeks, it seems like — on the balance — those who plan ahead ultimately end up in a stronger position than those who depend on some version of ”winning the lottery,” either literally, or in a casino, or by playing the cryptocurrency markets.
So even if it does make me an ”old fossil.” I think I'm gonna keep my 5 year and 10 year plans on the table! But writing this out helped clarify things a bit.
Thanks for reading and have a great remainder of your week!
How about YOU? Are you a planner? Or do you just let things unfold as they come? Given the "shortening" of virtually everything in the world, do you think long term planning is becoming obsolete? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 20220706 13:02 PDT
0604/1850
Oh for sure we need to plan for the future. The trends on the internet and shit on living in the moment only are ones that are not based in reality. Little do we know or see the financial debt these trolls are in, or living in their parents basement type shit. Those of us who have jobs, lives, families and all that have to do the sensible thing. Planning is crucial and it’s definitely something sketchy as far as stability but plans change that’s a given. Planning for the future is important especially for a business. We can’t bank on specific numbers but having a goal of saving X money to reinvest in something or replace something is important. All of the most successful businesses became successful with planning and continue to be successful with planning so I think it’s a load of horse shit if people try to say that we shouldn’t be planning. Let the trolls be trolls, they will be weeded out.
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It seems to me that the best way to muddle through short term chaos is to focus on long term vision.
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I also have been having those thoughts. It's hard to know what to do or when you are okay or not.
At one point I thought we'd be fine, but wasn't counting on cancer, inflation and a general sense of having no idea what the future holds. lol.
We'll be okay, but it is stressful.
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I think longterm thinking is fine but not outdated thinking. I think it's hard to know the differences sometimes. One problem i see alot is people use what i call 20th century thinking and economics in the 21st century.
For example my parents generation was of save money... My generation is create more money and more stuff. I think capitalism is outdated thinking. I think on hive people are old school capitalist who create more problems than they solve. Whereas i believe in a more futurist abundance currency model.
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Long-term planning requires a measure of flexibility, because nothing seems concrete anymore. Maybe it never was, and prior generations also just managed to get by despite the chaos. Unless we're politically-connected, nothing is certain and solid.
Things are indeed changing rapidly. Especially in the crypto space. It's like Einstein stated, time is relative. To me, it feels like it's been ages since the Terra crash when it's what? Two months?
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I believe we have become more short term oriented as a result of governmental monetary policies: slowly abondoning the gold standard and initiating their fiat monetary shenanigans to avoid defaulting, governments and central banks have had the ability to expand monetary supply for their own benefit. This results as a devaluing money and savings for the common folk which results in short term thinking and rapid spending, because why hold money that loses value.
Fiat solved the problem for salability and payments across space at the expenses of salability across time. Gold was salable only across time - one reason why it was abandoned as a standard. Bitcoin fixes this because it is both, salable across time AND space.
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I also have long term plans, but I learned that I have to remain flexible because those plans almost never work out as I first wanted.
Original plan was: marriage, house, car, kids + gradually removing expenses so we wont need much money to live
Well, plans change and we had to start with the kids, car and we still don't own a house.
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I think a couple of factors are considered in long or short term planning. For example, if you're living in a place riddled with terrorist and security issues,, you won't really be planning that far ahead.
I think that certain factors that includes age and interests might be a factor in long term planning
There's also the fact that perspectives may vary. What you consider long term might be short term to someone else.
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I think is important to plan long term, but do not write those plans in stone. You need to leave some space for a change of direction or to take advantage of new opportunities.