I think ahead. Maybe that’s the nature of my profession or maybe it’s what makes me good at it. For as long as I can remember, I have always thought ahead. I try to think about a problem from as many possible sides at once. Sometimes this is simply playing the devil’s advocate. Sometimes it’s trying to wrap my head around why someone did something by thinking about it from their perspective. What do they gain, what do they think they’ll gain, how does this make something better for them, what is making them see this action as the best one for them?
That sort of thing lets me understand a problem even when I see the outcome differently. It applies to any number of concepts. Architectural design, law makers, product changes, career choices. The list is endless. I’m sure I’ve wasted more cycles than most thinking about some irrelevancies because I wanted to understand the WHY. Not just the HOW. So, sometimes a see a thing and can not fathom how someone else didn’t plan for it.
The latest example is our friends in Texas with the power issues. The electricity grid in the US is atrocious. It has been for as long as I’ve been alive. Now Texas is suffering. Much like California was suffering during the heatwaves and wildfires last summer.
What did Texas do wrong? It gambled. The state Legislature didn’t make regulations to ensure that the power companies were prepared for something like a cold snap. Natural gas pipelines froze. Wind turbines froze. Why? For the most part, they weren’t insulated.
These same technologies work fine in Chicago. And Canada. And in Norway. Cold isn’t an issue because they planned for it.
People say Texans didn’t think it would ever get that cold. But that’s not true. It gets cold in Northern Texas and there have been more and more cold snaps going further South and colder over the past 20 years. They knew. The companies involved didn’t have an incentive to do anything about it. Right now, people are fixing power issues. Eventually everything will be back online.
Will the Power Companies suffer? No. They thought about this. There is no law saying they need to do it. they can’t be held legally liable because it’s an ‘Act of God’. There is virtually no way they’ll be held negligent even though they obviously are. They paid off the lawmakers to deregulate everything. They cut all of the corners they could. Now people are suffering.
But not them.
They planned for this. They thought about it from every angle. And decided to make money off of the potential for other people suffering.
Forethought.