📘 Part 3: Planning

This episode's vocabulary

Have an outline (phrase) – to have a basic plan. → It's good to at least have an outline of what you need to do.

Foreseeable (adjective) – able to be predicted or guessed before it happens. → Some things are definitely foreseeable and you can plan around them.

Anticipate (verb) – to imagine or expect that something will happen. → You can anticipate what other people might need or like.

Follow a career path (phrase) – to proceed along a sequence of jobs in your chosen career. → They're the ones who will be following those particular career paths.

Prone to something (phrase) – likely to suffer from an illness or show a particular negative characteristic. → Young children are prone to flights of fancy.

Flights of fancy (phrase) – imaginative but unrealistic ideas. → Children's plans can be flights of fancy, like wanting to be a dinosaur.

Make an informed choice (phrase) – to make a decision based on good information. → Adults can help children make an informed choice.

Commonplace (adjective) – happening often or existing in large numbers, and so not considered special or unusual. → Even if making study plans was commonplace, that still doesn't mean it would be popular.

Tend to (phrasal verb) – to be likely to behave in a particular way or have a particular characteristic. → Older people tend to have more experience.

Colored by bias (phrase) – influenced by personal and sometimes unreasonable judgments. → Their advice might be colored by their own bias and experiences.

Flying blind (idiom) – to do something without having the necessary information or experience. → It's better than asking no one and flying completely blind.

Transferable skills (noun) – skills that can be used in different jobs, companies, and industries. → Many degrees and courses have transferable or soft skills that could be useful for anyone.

Questions and Answers

Maria: Do you think it's important to plan ahead?

Rory: In the main, yes, it's good to at least have an outline of what you need to do. then there's less stress in deciding what to do in the moment, isn't there? I know people talk a lot about living in the moment, but some things are definitely foreseeable and you can plan around them.

Maria: What activities do we need to plan ahead?

Rory: Oh, all kinds of things. Usually the ones involving other people, so you can anticipate what they might need or like and how best to get it to them. Or of how to cope when those things aren't available or possible. I think the best example is for things like birthdays and birthday parties. You need to make sure you have enough food and drink and space for everyone involved. And you need to get a good gift. If you leave all that to the last moment, then it could all go horribly wrong.

Maria: Do you think children should plan their future careers?

Rory: Well, they're the ones who will be following those particular career paths, so they should have some say, at least, shouldn't they? I suppose all of this depends on how young the children are too, since young children are prone to flights of fancy and maybe cannot anticipate all the pros and cons of a different career. But, adults can help with that too, so they can make an informed choice.

Maria: Is making study plans popular among young people?

Rory: Having taught them for the better part of a decade, I'm going to say that is a hard no, which makes sense since their prefrontal cortexes haven't finished developing yet. So, none of the executive functions needed to make study plans are there. Of course, some young people might develop faster than others, but that is a rarity in my experience. Even if it was commonplace, that still doesn't mean it would be popular. I think they'd rather be out and having fun than sat at home making plans.

Maria: Should the children ask their teachers and parents for advice when making plans?

Rory: I don't see why not. Older people tend to have more experience and, I don't know, wisdom to draw on compared to younger people and teachers and parents are the most obvious sources of that. Of course, they're not perfect since they might be colored by their own bias and experiences, but it's it's better than asking no one and flying completely blind.

Maria: Do you think choosing a college major is closely related to a person's future career?

Rory: It certainly used to be, but it seems like nowadays, unless it's a profession requiring a lot of technical knowledge, like a doctor or an engineer, many degrees and courses have transferable or soft skills that could be useful for anyone. So you could choose to focus on anything and still come out with a lot of relevant experience.