Journal: News & Comment

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What's your plan? And what's your other plan?

What do you do when your transit system goes on strike? Or your drinking water is contaminated? Or your electricity goes out? Or your Internet provider goes under?

Many of us, people and companies alike, expect too much, promise too much, and can't deliver when the crunch comes. Tech columnist Dan Gillmor of the San Jose Mercury News theorizes that over-promising and under-delivering require most people to create a "Plan B" for almost everything they do -- more so than in the past.

How much time, effort, and money do we all waste on Plan Bs? Does any of it get factored into economic analyses? Not much, I suspect.

Then again, things were simpler but starker for our ancestors:

• Plan A: Eat food from your fields.
• Plan B: If there is a drought or weather disaster, starve.

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