“You think that you are the great man because you know all of these things.” He waved his arms at the panels and the dials surrounding them, and out … - Larry Niven

Too much imagination and I’ll scare myself to death. Too little and I’ll get myself killed.

WHY WARS DON’T STOP
Then who can end a war? The leaders of embattled nations? They aren’t bleeding, except by proxy. It’s only their own imaginations that make war different from a complex chess game.
The citizens at home? They are usually assured that they are winning, or that the enemy are inhuman monsters, or that to lose would be annihilation, or all of the above.
Aside from all this, surrender is dishonorable. This is only partly an ethical judgment. It feels dishonorable. Nobody fakes a surrender reflex without cost. Surrender is losing a fight, and we aren’t wired to take that lightly. All of evolution is against losing casually, for trout as well as men.
Wars continue because there is nobody who can end them. WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT
You can’t do anything about it.

11) There is a time and place for tact. And there are times when tact is entirely misplaced.