(excerpt) The chief financial officer of an international consulting firm holds a cell phone to his ear while waiting for the shuttle from New York to Boston. He listens to the messages that have piled up since he phoned in three hours earlier. After he flips the phone closed, he sits down to wait for his plane and starts to brood. A valued employee has asked for a transfer to another division. Questions begin to ricochet through his mind: What if the employee complains that the CFO is a lousy boss? What if the employee plans to take his team with him in the move? What if, what if… ? The CFO becomes lost in a frightening tangle of improbable outcomes, a thicket that will ensnarl his mind the entire flight back to Boston. The minute he gets home he will dash off an e-mail to the employee and eagerly await a reply—which, when it comes the next day, will likely upset him further by its ambiguity. More brooding will ensue, making it difficult for him to focus on his work.