The ability to create new plans is more valuable than any particular plan.
Most people think of planning as the process of deciding what they will do in advance. They develop a plan, organize their resources, and attempt to execute it.
But this confuses the product of planning with the capability that produces it.
The real advantage is not having a plan. It is being able to create new plans whenever circumstances demand them.
Problems Are Inevitable. Solutions Must Be Created.
In The Beginning of Infinity (2011), physicist David Deutsch establishes two fundamental propositions:
“Problems are inevitable.”
“Problems are soluble.”
Problems are inevitable because our knowledge is incomplete, circumstances change, and solving existing problems creates new ones.
But problems are soluble because human beings can create new knowledge. We are not limited to applying solutions we already possess. We can imagine possibilities that have never existed and develop ways to bring them about.
This is where planning becomes fundamental.
In Storythinking (2023) and Primal Intelligence (2025), Angus Fletcher argues that human intelligence includes the ability to imagine possible futures and construct sequences of actions to achieve them.
A plan is essentially a conjecture about how we might transform reality from its present condition into a desired one.
Planning therefore connects imagination with practical problem-solving.
Develop the Planner, Not the Plan
Fletcher makes an important distinction in his discussion of planning:
“The purpose of planning is to develop the planner, not to develop the plan.”
A plan is based on assumptions about the future. Some will inevitably be wrong. Unexpected problems, opportunities, and discoveries will require us to reconsider our intended course of action.
The mistake is to assume that planning has failed when the original plan becomes obsolete.
The deeper purpose of planning is to develop our capacity to imagine alternatives, anticipate consequences, recognize constraints, and invent new courses of action.
Every serious planning exercise is an opportunity to improve that capacity.
The Practical Implication
Becoming a better planner requires practicing four abilities:
- Identify problems. Recognize the difference between present reality and what we want to achieve.
- Imagine possibilities. Conceive alternative futures and different ways of reaching them.
- Construct plans. Develop plausible sequences of actions that could produce the desired outcomes.
- Adapt continuously. Criticize assumptions, learn from results, and generate new plans when necessary.
The objective is not to predict the future accurately enough that our plans never need to change.
It is to develop the intellectual capacity to respond intelligently when they do.
This is a powerful form of independence. Someone dependent on a particular plan is vulnerable when it fails. Someone capable of generating new plans retains possibilities that others may not recognize.
We cannot avoid encountering problems. But we can become increasingly capable of creating solutions.
The greatest advantage is not knowing what to do in every situation. It is knowing how to develop a plan when we don’t.
References
- Deutsch, D. (2011). The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World. Allen Lane. Chapter 3, “The Spark.”
- Fletcher, A. (2023). Storythinking: The New Science of Narrative Intelligence. Columbia University Press.
- Fletcher, A. (2025). Primal Intelligence: You Are Smarter Than You Know. Random House.
- Fletcher, A. (2025). Primal Intelligence — EconTalk interview with Russ Roberts, November 3, 2025.