Why We Shouldn’t Be So Sure of Our Predictions About the Future

A recent trip to the Temple of Apollo, once home to the oracle of Delphi, reminded me how obsessed we have always been with foretelling the future.

Sometimes, the oracle would offer observations. More often, it would offer slightly ambiguous predictions. Perhaps the most famous was the oracle’s prediction to King Croesus that if he went to battle against Cyrus and the Persians, he would “destroy a great empire.