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Plans Are Worthless but Planning Is Everything: A Theoretical Explanation of Eisenhower’s Observation
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Authors/contributors
- Garcia Contreras, Angel F. (Author)
- Ceberio, Martine (Author)
- Kreinovich, Vladik (Author)
- Ceberio, Martine (Editor)
- Kreinovich, Vladik (Editor)
Title
Plans Are Worthless but Planning Is Everything: A Theoretical Explanation of Eisenhower’s Observation
Abstract
The 1953–1961 US President Dwight D. Eisenhower emphasized that his experience as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe during the Second World War taught him that “plans are worthless, but planning is everything”. This sound contradictory: if plans are worthless, why bother with planning at all? In this paper, we show that Eisenhower’s observation has a meaning: while directly following the original plan in constantly changing circumstances is often not a good idea, the existence of a pre-computed original plan enables us to produce an almost-optimal strategy—a strategy that would have been computationally difficult to produce on a short notice without the pre-existing plan.
Book Title
Decision Making under Constraints
Series
Studies in Systems, Decision and Control
Place
Cham
Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Date
2020
Pages
93-98
Language
en
ISBN
978-3-030-40814-5
Short Title
Plans Are Worthless but Planning Is Everything
Accessed
02/02/2024, 15:23
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Citation
Garcia Contreras, A. F., Ceberio, M., & Kreinovich, V. (2020). Plans Are Worthless but Planning Is Everything: A Theoretical Explanation of Eisenhower’s Observation. In M. Ceberio & V. Kreinovich (Eds.), Decision Making under Constraints (pp. 93–98). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40814-5_11
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