When planning for the future we often ask, "What will the economy be doing this time next year?" Or, "What will be different ten years from now?"

But forecasting is hard. The important events that will shape the future are inherently unpredictable.

Instead, we should be asking a different question: What will be the same ten years from now? What will be the same one hundred years from now? Knowledge of the things that never change is more useful, and more important, than an uncertain prediction of an unknowable future.

As you see familiar themes repeat again and again in the years ahead, you'll find yourself nodding and saying, "Yep, same as ever."