I think even the peak oil people said something like "Unless things change, we're going to run out of oil" But more to the point, I have a colleague who regula

I think even the peak oil people said something like "Unless things change, we're going to run out of oil" But more to the point, I have a colleague who regularly speaks in future-past tense, speaking like some goals have already been accomplished. I complain about it sometimes, but I also think it is useful. I know that sometimes I will get into a problem finding spiral - listing all the things that can go wrong and need to be taken care of before I start a task. I know this is not useful, but it is something my brain does. I think the wisdom here is realizing that these parts of the brain or people in an organization need to take turns and be very careful about assuming a terminal condition of a system. There are both very real problems to be solved and very real value available. I'm not sure you can do both at the same time; it may be something our brain rewrites in a more pleasing form after the fact.