I understand the value of a good plan. However, over time, I have learned respect for and fascination with what might be called "faith without detailed planning" or maybe "just in time planning." The manufacturing practice called "just in time" refers to making or delivering things just when they are needed instead of stockpiling a large inventory for use or sale later.
Every now and then, I see an interesting reference to just-in-time planning and problem solving. The first and best quote on this topic I saw was in a book by Peter McWilliams. It was one that has been attributed to Goethe but seems to rightly have come from the Scottish Himalayan expedition book by W.H. Murray:
Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too . A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way.
I learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets:
Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!'
The "couplet" referred to as Goethe's is often attributed directly to Goethe, but it should be noted that it is actually a rough paraphrase of some of Goethe's writing which was originally written in German.
(The inserted material is a copy from Joseph Ranseth's web pages. He also stated a similar quote from Henry David Thoreau's famous Walden:
"I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings.
In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness.
If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them."
Henry David Thoreau, Walden (Chapter 18)
Steven Johnson's exciting and inspirational "Where Good Ideas Come From" repeatedly gives instances where an invention or innovation in one field serves a completely unforeseeable use in a very different one. When we have the courage and brains to try something, we often find that in the midst of that try, ideas and resources come to mind that we could not have noticed had we not taken a few initial steps.
--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
