Roadmap vs Now/Next/Later

Biological Parallel

Squirrels practice temporal resource allocation: acorns for immediate consumption (now), cached nuts for this winter (next), and mast seeding years that determine multi-year population booms (later). But they revise constantly based on environmental feedback—discovering a rival's cache shifts priorities instantly. Traditional roadmaps are like squirrels ignoring fresh information and rigidly following a burial plan made in August; Now/Next/Later mimics adaptive foraging where commitment increases with proximity and certainty, maintaining optionality for later horizons when prediction accuracy collapses.