Charlotte Kemp explains premeditatio malorum, a Stoic practice of imagining worst-case scenarios including your own death. By rehearsing these outcomes, you can adjust your choices now to protect your reputation and legacy. It's ancient philosophy applied to modern scenario planning.
The ancient Stoics had a practice called premeditatio malorum, a premeditation of evils. This meditative process has one literally looking at the worst-case scenario. Scenarios are useful tools in futures thinking to paint a picture of what the world could look like and the implications for business or people in that scenario. In the case of the premeditation of evils, a Stoic would consider literally what the end of their lives would look like. What would it be like to face their own death? They would consider what would be left behind, unsaid or undone. They would consider loved ones that they're leaving behind. They would consider their reputation or anything else that they have anxiety about relating to the end of their life and their existence. Having considered all of that, they would then take the actions in this present moment to live their lives differently. I'm Charlotte Kemp, and this is an extract from my recent book, Two Trains to Understand the World Today.
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