Pro Hindsight
Take some plan or goal you have and imagine a brilliant success. Everything went great, and now you’re in the future celebrating. Maybe your team is there, or your family and friends. You may even be giving a speech regaling everyone with the story of what happened. So then try asking yourself: What must have happened in order for this success story to come about?
- Try to be as concrete as possible, point out things that an impartial observer can identify.
Also see The Miracle Question
Pre Hindsight (aka Pre-mortem)
Visualize failing to reach your goal. How surprised are you? If you’re not particularly surprised, consider what that says about your goal.
- Imagine yourself taking the action — executing the plan
- Check how surprised you will be if you fail
- Ask yourself what the most likely cause of failure will be (assuming you will fail)
- Update your plan to avoid it
This is pre-hindsight — using imagination to predict obvious failure modes.
Something Special About These Thinking Toys?
This power is a bit curious to me. By imagining a hypothetical, our mind can identify “obvious” new insights. But if they’re so obvious, why didn’t we already know them? Why must we consciously move our attention in this pattern of pre-hindsight to reveal the insight? We may be toeing the edge of the capabilities of our mind. Powers that are accessible but require a conscious nudge to access.