Philosophy is Optimism

The optimism of reading philosophy is that it languages a world outside of accurate instrumentality or expediency (correspondence isn’t a requirement of philosophy).

There’s also the slow dopamine train of prediction involved in interpretation of events, then casting it forward. Especially when one becomes entangled in the forward

Entangled, as in quantum (like languaged, it means being part of a unified wave) in that once a position is committed to, it locks in (and locks out) other positions (for that same observation). The trick is not to become entangled. Which probably means staying out of meetings (making it harder to build audience, publish etc). Of course, with multiple worlds, other positions remain fully correspondent. The trick is to be able to jump into those other spaces.

EXCAVATION
Sean Carroll, The Many Hidden Worlds of Quantum Mechanics , Chapter 5

APPLICATION

The quantum entanglement metaphor here points to a central discipline of strategic decision making: preserving optionality. Once a position is publicly committed to, in a meeting, in a strategy document, in an organizational narrative, the space of other possible positions collapses. This is not merely social pressure. It is a physical and cognitive reality. Commitment forecloses perception and we stop noticing the evidence that would support a different path. The practice of staying philosophically uncommitted for as long as is responsible, what the decision making literature calls the Last Responsible Moment, is not indecision. It is the deliberate preservation of the multiple worlds that Carroll describes. The leader who can hold competing frameworks simultaneously, without the anxiety of needing to resolve them prematurely, is operating in exactly the space where real options have value.