2020 publication
So the [economic] growth WIT [worldview, institutions, technology] is going to have to change drastically— or it, and possibly we, will vanish. Either way, the results for our societies are going to be wrenching.
But there are powerful reasons why the muddling-through approach will not always work for problems in today’s world. Incrementalism assumes that our circumstances are reasonably stable and change is slow. Because the past isn’t that different from the present, decision-makers can draw on what they have learned from the past—their practical knowledge, habits, and standard operating procedures, for instance—to guide their decisions in the present.
N.B. Homer-Dixon published this work 20 years before Commanding Hope.
Anxiety, the next gumption trap is sort of the opposite of ego. You’re so sure you’ll do everything wrong you’re afraid to do anything at all. Often this, rather than “laziness,” is the real reason you find it hard to get started. This gumption trap of anxiety, which results from overmotivation, can lead to all kinds of errors of excessive fussiness. You fix things that don’t need fixing, and chase after imaginary ailments. You jump to wild conclusions and build all kinds of errors into the machine because of your own nervousness.
The first reaction is one of fear. It’s not that we fear the unknown. You cannot fear something that you do not know. Nobody is afraid of the unknown. What you really fear is the loss of the known. That’s what you fear.
