TED'S TAKE: FINITENESS—IT CONTROLS EVERYTHING

From our budgets to what we want to accomplish in virtually anything, finiteness permeates and controls everything we do. Resources, both human and financial, are limited, or finite, and can be used over the short, intermediate or long term. We need to consider not just how many resources we have overall, but how long those resources will last. Think about finiteness as an umbrella that covers and guides our actions.

Our finiteness umbrella forces choices: resources are limited, so what choice gets you closer to your goals? We tend to ignore this and it’s why we often fail at achieving our goals.

Think about it: we ask questions like - do you want this or that -  but rarely do we consider what we are “not” doing when we choose the answer to our question. We never ask questions like: do you want this OR that if it means not doing something else? Reframing the question like this is working under the umbrella.

Add the long-term view and things gets really complicated. It’s hard for folks to think about future decisions or needs because we tend to focus only on the present—we have “I want it now” syndrome.

But avoiding it doesn’t mean the finiteness umbrella goes away. It permeates things like buying a house (how much can your budget afford relative to your income), saving for retirement while buying a house (putting money aside while using money), house repairs (paying for normal expenses while dealing with unexpected needs), putting our children through college and the related choice of college (dealing with “today” versus “tomorrow”), and countless other aspirations. And of course, there is the “keeping up with the Joneses” syndrome (generally a nothingness push for things judging by the perception of what others have - distractions).

Many lose focus on their ultimate goals, and many haven’t thought about such goals. We must all view every choice we make – basics like food or gas and luxuries from vacations to jewelry – as a choice among competing alternatives.

This finiteness applies to governments and their choices as well. One example is the move to electric vehicles.  In the European Union (EU) recent studies indicate the EU needs to invest $3-4 trillion over the next 30 years to reach their objectives. The United Kingdom needs to invest another $4 trillion to reach its objectives. Do these investments in infrastructure and power generation represent a “bleed” on their economies or a diversion of resources from other things like median income level growth?  Do taxpayers support the goals, recognizing they will need to pay more or have their resources diverted?.

In the United States (US) the cost will be much more because we are much larger. In addition, on this issue other less-developed countries are discussing a reparations fund of $1.0 trillion annually from the developed countries to address the negative environmental impacts and damage the developed countries have allegedly caused.

This and other global demands – AI and energy required by related data centers is a good example –  should push us to consider the finiteness umbrella. Everything we do happens within the limits of finite resources – both current needs and future unknowns.

We have to see every decision through that lens. It’s about choosing between competing options.. The answer can’t  be – all of the above. If we try to do everything, we won’t have the resources to do any of it well – and therefore end up failing. 

My late wife had a saying “blessed are those that dream dreams and are willing to pay the price to make them come true.” We are very good at dreaming dreams, but we often lack the right data and information about such dreams, yet we make decisions anyway. So, we fail at the last part of that saying: willing to pay the price to make them come true. If we would look at things under the umbrella of finiteness, tough choices would be much clearer– and our goals would be achievable.