So one of the more interesting stories that I heard was of an architect who had to work on an English church, a chapel, that was built in, like, the 15th century. So it was a very old building, and this architect specialized in this kind of thing.
And the problem that this building had was that one of the oak beams that was used to hold up the roof structure was deteriorating. And he told the vicar who was running the church, well, this is going to be the problem because we can't get oak beams that are as big as this one. And the vicar said, oh, yeah, we can. And he took them out in the back. And a forest of oak trees had been planted when the church was built, and these oak trees were enormous.
And one of these trees could supply the necessary beam. So the moral of the story was that at the time the church was built, they knew this would be an issue. It may not be an issue for 600 years, but it would be an issue at some point. So they planted the trees.
That's foresight.
Well, it is. I think one of the problems that we're facing now with IT is that people are so convinced that things are moving really fast and the speed by which things are moving will take care of obsolescence, take care of the replacement costs. That's crazy. |