The liberation in the uselessness of plans

After making vague reference to “some military general” in the post below, I couldn’t help myself and went googling. It turns out I was quoting none other than Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II, before he was the 34th President of the United States, only what he really said was:

In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless but planning is indispensable.

And it would seem his original source was a “statement I heard long ago in the Army: Plans are worthless, but planning is everything".

So there you have it, those are the facts, true and accurate (as per Wikipedia anyhow).

I find that a liberating notion really, because it means that plans were not all a waste of time, or an humiliation, even if things don’t go ‘according to plan’, in the end. You have gained something in the planning (I don’t know what exactly – but maybe a clarity of purpose, strategy, possibilities, needs, wishes or some such thing).

And sometimes a random thought that came along generates a second blog post, and that's OK ... There isn't enough money in the world to make me want to be the Commander leading anybody into a World War, or the President of the United States, but I might go and write a book list.