Why Do We Resist Foresight?

Layla Foord
Apr 15
2 min read

Updated: May 9

Foresight isn’t rare. It’s just hard to absorb when it threatens what we’re invested in.

There’s a pattern I’ve lived inside for years:

Woman sharing idea to a group of clueless people

You see something

You speak it.

You offer a way through.

And people nod… and then wait.

They wait for more evidence.

They wait for someone else to say it louder.

They wait for the risk of change to shrink or for the cost of not changing to rise.

By the time they act, the moment has passed.The damage has begun.

And the system quietly forgets who saw it first.

We don’t reject the signal. We reject the cost of change.

Foresight is rarely dismissed because it’s wrong.

It’s dismissed because it’s early.

Because to accept it means betting on something unproven, or giving up something known.

Sometimes that means letting go of a product.

Sometimes it’s a process, a policy, or a power dynamic.

But it’s always something.

And systems don’t give that up easily.

I’ve felt this resistance up close.

Years ago, I led one of the earliest mobile navigation products in Australia.

We partnered with Garmin and Telstra before Google Maps was dominant.

We knew mobile would reshape the navigation industry.

We had the infrastructure.

The talent.

The model.

But change wasn’t just about tech.

It was about trust, culture, pace and fear.

Eventually, the wave arrived.

The tools we built were quietly replaced by what we predicted would come.

We weren’t wrong.

We were early.

And the system couldn’t hold it.

This happens everywhere.

We praise innovation, until it requires us to move.

We say we want vision, until it asks us to change something we’ve built our roles, businesses, or egos around.

It’s easier to delay than to disrupt.

Easier to hold onto what works today than risk being the first to admit it won’t tomorrow.

The pattern isn’t new.

Print media saw digital coming and clung to print.
Retail saw eCommerce and buried it in “experience.”
Education saw online learning and doubled down on hours, rooms, and tests.

They didn’t fail from lack of awareness.They failed from over-investment in what used to work.

But some systems absorbed the signal.

Netflix pivoted from DVDs to streaming before customers asked for it.
Spotify bet on streaming before we stopped downloading.
Figma designed for collaboration before most teams worked that way.

They didn’t just see the future, they let go of the present.

So what do we do with what we already know?

We stop silencing the signal just because it’s uncomfortable.

We build systems that reward early noticing, not just clean execution.

We get better at holding the friction between what’s working… and what’s coming.

I’m not interested in being first to market anymore.

I’m interested in building teams, structures, and cultures that can absorb the signal when it arrives.

Before it’s obvious.

Before it hurts.

Before it’s too late.

– Layla