When I added this item to my blog queue, I marked it as a Red Meat Friday post but now that I’m actually writing it, I’m having second thoughts. That’s because there’s nothing really controversial here. Everyone agrees—or should agree—with the conclusion: Before embarking on an endeavor, you should ask yourself, “What could go wrong?”
That’s because of the law of unintended consequences. Even though your intentions are pure and good, there’s always the possibility that something could go wrong and it pays to consider what that something might be.
Here’s an amusing example. Amusing at least if you aren’t Australian:
Rabbits in Australia are an invasive species and their current population there is estimated in billions. Everything started in 1859 from 24 bunnies released for hunting purposes
[read more: https://t.co/NcMe4VYy1A] pic.twitter.com/vDHjzwNg0g
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) May 12, 2023
What could go wrong? We’ll import a couple dozen rabbits and have a nice hunting excursion. Billions of bunnies later, they’re asking, “Who could have imagined?” Well, anyone who knows anything about rabbits or the Fibonacci Sequence could easily have imagined what could go wrong if only they’d stopped to ask the question.
Here in the United States, we have the examples of Kudzu and opossums as rat control among many others. And, of course, the French had their infamous wealth tax. At no point did anyone stop to ask, “What could go wrong?” The answers, in retrospect, are all too obvious.