“What distinguishes the successful entrepreneur and promoter from other people is precisely the fact that he does not let himself be guided by what was and is, but arranges his affairs on the ground of his opinion about the future. He sees the past and the present as other people do; but he judges the future in a different way. In his actions he is directed by an opinion about the future which deviates from those held by the crowd.” – Ludwig von Mises, Human Action (p.582)
Related notes:
- 4-1a4b6a1 Future self is enough of an audience
- 3-1c3b1 You don’t take notes to know where the knowledge came from (justification), but to use it in the future, to solve problems.
- 1-2b2 He who controls the past controls the future
- 10-2e6 Any theory must account for the meaning of ‘the future’ and ‘the past’ because both are arbitrary abstractions and do not exist objectively in reality
- 3-1c3a1 Tracing its beginning is as impossible as predicting the future
- 5-1b3a In particular, we underestimate how much we can change in the future during and after downturns. Things change.