Everything is in a constant state of flux, except our first impressions.
Over the last few years, I can’t tell you how often I have been warned away from some solution or another because someone was burned by it in the past (often times in the distant past). It’s not that past experience should be ignored, but things must be revisited when conditions have changed.
I hear this about not using parts of computer languages that were broken 10 years ago, or not trying a business strategy that failed 8 years ago, or not using an international web software service because the server used to crash 4 years ago. Technology and conditions change and our previous learnings are not longer valid.
When we try something and run into difficulties, it becomes permanently damned in our mind. In many situations, this is a good things. Hot stoves will always burn you.
But as our world continues to change at unparalleled speeds, this coping mechanism can also come at a cost especially when others are willing to go where you are too afraid. We need to be willing to reevaluate past decisions, particularly when it’s clear that it’s something that should have been fixed in the years since your last evaluation or when conditions may have invalided our previous operations.
We shouldn’t be stupid and continue touching the hot stove, but we also shouldn’t be stupid and not recognize that the stove has been off for hours.
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