One Apple A Day #796 - sense the future
As they say, we can only connect the dots looking backwards.
To me, that means we can only make sense of things in hindsight or, in the best case, while they are happening.
Our sense-making skills then are less useful when it comes to the future.
Sure, when we make sense of the past, from the immediate to the remote one, we can make forecasts about what may happen.
But predictions are based on the assumption that the future will unfold consistently with the past.
But that's not always the case.
Plus, this approach makes us blind to the unexpected.
If we rely solely on our sense-making skills, then, we may miss out opportunities or be overwhelmed by something that doesn't make sense, yet it happens.
That's why, to deal with the uncertainties of the future, we must reclaim our sensing skills. Something that kids have in abundance. Because they can't make sense of most of what they experience, they have to rely on their ability to sense. Same for our ancestors. They didn't have our knowledge and our tools to make sense of what was happening around them. To survive and thrive, they needed to sharpen their sensing skills.
In such an uncertain time then, I believe we should take the time to reawaken our ability to sense.
To me, it is a challenge because sensing has no words, no numbers, not even thoughts. All things that come only afterwards. Because I can't explain what I sense, it's hard for me to act on it.
Though anytime I do it, magic happens.