The Chorus of 'No Planning, Please' is Making My Head Hurt

"In his July 10 New York Times column, David Brooks noodled about in a Brooksian sort of way with the notion of what is and what is not within the realm of predictability. Using Brazil’s loss in the World Cup as a hook, he argues that soccer — unlike baseball, which has been reimagined by math nerds — turns out to be too complex a game to bow easily to predictive modeling."

Ben Brown talks through David Brooks assumptions, and concludes by encouraging us to "plan or get planned."

"The trouble we’re having with planning as a nation, as regions and as communities is that too many of us deny the need to make a choice, figuring that if we do nothing, nothing will happen. It’s an option off the table in sports, where refusing to choose a strategy is tantamount to forfeiting the game. But in the broader reality, complicated by unclarified goals and untested strategies for an uncertain future, we can maintain the delusion — at least temporarily — that we can preserve our options without affecting the consequences of indecision."