Dear CEOs: Please Stop Whining About Uncertainty

slate.com — Look. Uncertainty is an intrinsic feature of reality. Business executives do not currently know what fiscal or regulatory policy will look like in 2017 and there is absolutely nothing that can be done to alter this fact. Executives in 1952 did not know what 1957 would look like and executives in 1992 did not know what 1997 would look like. There's no certainty about domestic public policy, there's no certainty about foreign crises, there's no certainty about technological trends, there's no certainty about consumer tastes, there's no certainty about anything. Life is hard. But Google's managed to build a lucrative business around web search and advertising without certainty. Apple and Samsung have built lucrative smartphone businesses without certainty. They pay the CEOs the big bucks because it's hard to know how to make successful products in an uncertain world. That's the job.

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