Management Principle from Dune

The other day Atamert Ölçgen quoted a passage from Dune in response to something I’d posted on Google+. I haven’t read the Dune books, but the passage puts generalists in a favorable light, and since I’m something of a generalist, I’m inclined to like such quotes. Here’s the part I particularly liked. It says that the mentat must be able to say

There’s no real mystery about this at the moment. This is what we want now. It may prove wrong later, but we’ll correct that when we come to it.

Too often we act as if every decision is weighty and permanent. Of course some decisions are weighty and permanent, but most are not. Wisdom is knowing which decisions are and which are not. Sometimes it pays to not try to look too far ahead, conceding that if you’re wrong “we’ll correct that when we come to it.”