Putting a name on a cloud doesn’t do anything to it – it doesn’t separate the cloud from the sky.     – Alan Watts

This week at work I noticed so many efforts to name the clouds around us. A analyst struggled to create market estimates for a new technology that is just barely beginning to emerge. There were delays in deployment of a stunningly complex reporting protocol, one seemingly based on a premise that to name is to control. An executive tried to explain that their three different product lines were only separate on our spreadsheets, since in the real world they are all intertwined.

I truly love analysis, in almost every form. It brings a sense of agency in an uncertain world – and occasionally, real insight. The best part is when you can add a great new piece to the rest of the puzzle, and step back to take in the view.

However.

Dear ones,

perhaps,

sometimes,

instead of naming each cloud and trying to fix it in place,

we could just appreciate the sky.