What Do I Understand?

Like everybody else, I try to make sense of events. I believe that I will be better off if I am right. As also everybody knows it is close to impossible to be right most of the time, or maybe more to the point, it is hard to get personal rewards out of right predictions.
Let us consider for instance income. In the movie "The Graduate" forty years ago one can get the advise given to the young graduate, "plastics". Was that prediction right? Yes it was right, the amount of plastic around us is staggering, it is literally choking us to death. Would that young man be well off now following that advise? Very likely yes, he will have a secure financial position. But was that good? Very likely not. A more critical attitude, as in fact was advised in the movie, is better for the benefit of all of us.