Landscape vs Landscaping Heuristic

00:33:22 — Landscape Versus Landscaping: Know What You Can Change

A useful heuristic for systems thinking is to distinguish between landscape and landscaping. You can change the landscaping in front of your house, but you cannot move the mountain behind it. The word ‘should’ is a signal that someone is treating something immutable as if it were changeable, while ‘can’t’ often signals treating something mutable as if it were fixed. Recognizing which is which prevents wasted effort and misplaced expectations.