
We rely heavily on conventional instruments to guide people at work. Look around you in any organization and what do you see? Role and responsibility descriptions and hierarchical structures. Procedures to comply with, business processes to follow, and more. And all of them assume that people are always acting rationally and using all available information when they make decisions.
JFK’s 1961 speech arguing that the US should commit itself to “achieving the goal, before this decade is out, landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth” wasn’t just good rhetoric; it was also specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound. That’s what makes them SMART goals.
…FK example shows, Peter Thiel’s comment in his book Zero to One (from Amazon US and UK) is spot on: people routinely overestimate what they can achieve in a year, but routinely underestimate what they can achieve in ten years.