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How Much Does History Matter?

Games of chance, or games of skill? Play the odds and time will tell

Does the past always repeat itself? I guess if the exact same steps are taken and the same information is used to make decisions, then it probably does to some extent. But there are many outside influences that can’t be controlled and can affect the outcome in a way you weren’t expecting. 

Trying to figure out what is going to happen today by using what happened yesterday seems like a reasonable thing to do. But is it really? If it was as easy as analyzing results from the past, then it should be easy to predict what will happen in the future.

But it isn’t. It never is. If it was, then sports betting and playing the stock market and investing in real estate would all be 100% guaranteed money-makers.

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Defining the Present With the Past

Barbados in all of its beauty. The water is never the same colour, and it is always breathtaking

Using history to predict the future is a common occurrence in society. People who play the stock market do it, oddsmakers for professional sports betting do it, and the government does it.

Trends can be useful in many ways to provide a framework for what we think is going to happen.

But at the same time, it can be very limiting to assume that things will happen the way they always have. Even expecting others in your life to be as they have always been can be unfair.

While it can be helpful to have a certain conception or expectation of how things tend to work in any given situation, it can also stop you from seeing new possibilities.

We impose barriers and restrictions on what we feel is possible and what can’t be done. These limits are put into place by what has already occured. 

When assumptions are made, the uniqueness of each situation is not allowed to unfold. Expectations can be too restrictive.

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