Chapter 8: The Art of Anticipating. In the 1950s America was flush with possibilities. The powerful manufacturing engines of World War II had finally been retooled to peacetime needs. | The Art of Anticipating In the 1950s America was flush with possibilities. The powerful manufacturing engines of World War II had finally been retooled to peacetime needs. Ranch houses huge cars jet airliners freeways rockets and TV had redefined the face of America. Anything seemed feasible. In the midst of all this gee-whiz optimum a W engineer made a memorable and rather cynical presentation. The speaker recast a quote he had read in Aviation Mechanics Bulletin If an aircraft part can be installed incorrectly it will be. His new generic version If anything can go wrong it will. That engineer s last name was Murphy. Or so one of the stories goes. There are at least five explanations of Murphy s Law. Not that the twentieth century was the first to note that the best laid schemes of mice and men often go astray as eighteenth-century poet Robert Burns put it. But as our lives have become increasingly complicated and reliant on technology glitches appear to be far more prevalent Copyright 2003 by the McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Click here for Terms of Use. 93 94 Time Management __ Keeping Abreast of the Times .Smart It may seem an obvious point but the truth is that anticiManaging pating the future involves knowledge of both the past and the present. You can dramatically improve your ability to predict upcoming events and your chances of forestalling future problems if you simply keep your eyes and ears more you know about what s going on around you the more likely you are to recognize when events are moving in a direction that might impact you. For instance gossip isn t always useless. If you ve heard that your boss may be up for a promotion you anticipate the possible changes. If she gets it you may also be promoted. On the other hand you may stay where you are and get a new boss. Either way it s smart to make sure that you re ready and stay alert to signs of changes. and pesky cell phone calls .
