Don't let the ending rewrite the beginning
There is something seductive about a coherent story.
Rybakina wins the tournament:
She was destined to win.
A company succeeds:
The founder had a vision.
A child struggles:
He has ADHD, so of course this happened.
A marriage hits conflict:
We've always had this problem.
A patient improves:
It was the treatment.
Humans are extraordinarily good at turning events into stories.
That capacity is valuable.
It lets us:
remember
teach
find meaning
anticipate.
But stories have a tendency to erase:
chance
multiple causes
uncertainty
failed branches
contradictory evidence.
A useful story does not merely explain why the ending happened.
It preserves:
the other endings that were once possible.
That matters because the purpose of learning from the past is not simply to make it feel orderly.
It is to make future judgment better.