> the general outline of a five-year plan A general outline is useful to have. A useful four-year plan is kind of like "graduate from college". Lots of room fo

> the general outline of a five-year plan A general outline is useful to have. A useful four-year plan is kind of like "graduate from college". Lots of room for improvisation along the way, but the ability to measure if life is headed in the direction you want to be headed. In practice, I've found it impossible to follow a plan beyond two years due to external factors (friends and co-workers move, industries change, laws change, deaths, etc.). Those external factors seem to speed up with age. However, having a "general outline" (like waypoints on a journey) helps to correct course or select an alternate path when those inevitable changes happen.