One of the modern ways of thinking (well only for the last 10 years) is to have a target INR, and not think in ranges. I've mentioned this in other blog posts but I thought I'd do a post on what is probably the single most important thing: being regular in your management and aiming for targets. This is because if we aim at a target we aim for the center of the target and we know that while we may hit the bullseye we may not. This is of course not our intention. Anyone with any experience in shooting at targets knows we always aim at the center.
The Emperor Marcus Tullius Cicero understood this well.
He wrote:
Take the case of one whose task it is to shoot a spear or arrow straight at some target. One’s ultimate aim is to do all in one’s power to shoot straight, and the same applies with our ultimate goal. In this kind of example, it is to shoot straight that one must do all one can; none the less, it is to do all one can to accomplish the task that is really the ultimate aim. It is just the same with what we call the supreme good in life. To actually hit the target is, as we say, to be selected but not sought. (On Ends, III, 22)
This describes well the philosophy of Stoic action and serves as a good guide to the INR manager.
While the archer does everything he can to shoot accurately: his bow is well strung, his arrows are carefully chosen, he has taken full account of the prevailing wind and other variables, there are still other things which can happen. These are the "externals," as the Stoics called them (or in modern economics externalities).
Despite all best choices, the arrow may not hit the bullseye, or even the target. This is because as soon as it leaves the bow the success of our action is no longer within our control, but instead subject to outside forces. So it is with INR management.
We can't know about the future, we can only decide what to do based on what has gone. This is why we keep good records and have tools at our disposal to guide our decision making.
