Last week my office asked people to answer the question "What was the best mistake you made this semester?"  To my surprise nearly every answer said basically the same thing: I let a deadline pass--for some assignment, meeting, project, or whatever--and things worked out better because I did.

The world is full of crises, and crises, we are told, demand action.  So what to make, then, of these responses?  For me they are a reminder that problems work on their own timelines. The timelines can be influenced, to be sure, but they aren't easy to manipulate. Sometimes all we can do is to pay attention but do nothing.

So the question, then, is this: how can activists know when not to act?