An incredible amount of your overall performance in life is determined by how much you can conceptualize moments in the future.

Picture a stack of blocks. If you push it, can you see what will happen in your mind? Can you visualize the blocks falling, where they might land? Can you see other things in the room they might collide with?

Picture a person you know. If you say a hurtful thing to them, can you imagine their reaction? Can you see the pained look on their face?

The future is very predictable. Most effects follow simply from their causes. But when you hear someone ask “What did you expect,” in response to poor choices made by another, the answer is often: Nothing.

Some people have a really hard time visualizing any future moment. It’s not that they don’t have the intelligence or logical capacity. If you asked them, point blank, what happens to a glass bottle if you throw it against a brick wall, they can tell you that it shatters. But their ability to see that moment automatically when they’re engaged in other activity is non-existent.

My theory is that it’s not a binary “some have it, some don’t” sort of thing. I think, like anything else, it’s a skill. I think reading, particularly fiction, enhances it. I think social play enhances it. Probably lots of other things, but overall I do think it’s a skill you can develop. And I think it’s critical that you do.

Because I can predict what happens if you don’t.