Comment: This passage highlights how our drive to act precedes our ability to fully analyze - we move forward on a mix of calculation, intuition, and chance. It's a humble acknowledgment that human agency, not pure logic, ultimately drives economic and social progress.We should not conclude from this that everything depends on waves of irrational psychology.
On the contrary, the state of long-term expectation is often steady, and, even when it is not, the other factors exert their compensating effects.
We are merely reminding ourselves that human decisions affecting the future, whether personal or political or economic, cannot depend on strict mathematical expectation, since the basis for making such calculations does not exist; and that it is our innate urge to activity which makes the wheels go round, our rational selves choosing between the alternatives as best we are able, calculating where we can, but often falling back for our motive on whim or sentiment or chance.
Credit: John Maynard Keynes
Source: The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money
Image Credits: Pixabay
(Pixabay)In-person, 7–11 September 2026, Warbrook House, Hampshire, UK
We are living and working in conditions of uncertainty, complexity, and rapid change. Many leadership approaches still rely on control, expertise, and tools that no longer fit the realities people face.
This week-long immersive workshop brings people together to practise Conversational Leadership as a shared, lived experience. It is not a training course but a space to slow down, think together, and explore how leadership emerges through dialogue, responsibility, and real engagement.