Building the Timeline

In business, there’s no way to tell if a solution you provide is actually the correct solution. Metrics can adjust, sure, but there’s always the weight of infinity that can tip the scales toward the other end. What works today may not work tomorrow. It’s fine to want certainty, but it’s naive to think you’ll actually get it. So how do you truly know if the solution you provide is correct? If it’s The Solution? The answer: You don’t. You really don’t. And you never will. I’ve been going through an unlearning phase in my new role recently. It’s the realization that problems at work are nothing like those presented on high school exams. There is no clearcut criteria of what right and wrong is, and there’s no grade or score to help either. In reality, we’re all stepping forward in the dark. Some—the more tenured—already have a sense of the textures of the ground we step on and what we can expect depending on where we walk forward. But even they can’t say they act with 100% certainty.…