turning points, The Mechanics of Virtue, aphorism 322

322 

When we attempt to engineer a future event, we demand complete research, “complete” being defined as not exceeding nor falling short of all details related to our aim and obtainable within our time limit. There is much that must be excluded. Thus our research requires a strategic ignorance. But the research is still not the plan. We have yet to cull out of the totality of facts simple “turning points” calculated to accommodate human behavior, and of course only on condition that they increase the probability of our success. We often have to impose a simplicity upon a reality that does not in any way merit the slightest implication of being simplistic. If our standard of excellence places greater value on the successful execution of the strategy than on our talent for detailing the problem, then here too we condemn the intellect to a strategic ignorance. Of course, it is true that simplicity is not necessarily the same thing as clarity, and can often be its opposite, but simplistic instructions often carry us through complex situations ... and we are easily tempted out of this simplicity with the prospect of securing clarity by adding to the plan every detail, only to find in the moment of execution that we have also added confusion.

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