Rather than settling for superficial explanations or retreating into the beachhead of strategic positioning, the foresight practitioner can learn the most from the 'New Economy' failure by tolerating ambiguity and embracing its complexity. Case-studies that have captured the underlying dynamics are already becoming apparent. Clay Shirkey observed that "a handful of cultural institutions . . . absolutely mapped the history of the Alley." (Kaitt and Weiss, 2001: 80). Two examples are Razorfish's senior management battle (St. John, 2000) and Webvan's rollout of food delivery services (Mendelson, 2001). A new initiative (Webmergers.com and Robert H. Smith School of Business, 2002) hopes to archive key business documents for future study.

The reasons why dotcoms failed to implement capabilities for pragmatic and social foresight are numerous. For individuals, they included susceptibility to sociological propaganda and unquestioned orthodoxies; belief in media reportage and analysts as informed elites; a superficial knowledge of age-cohort analysis, historical trends and scenarios; and an unawareness of lifecycle patterns. For organizations, they included a misunderstanding of foresight methodologies; a narrow application of environmental scanning to only the most obvious factors; groupthink isolation of potential change agents; a short-term focus on market-share shareholder profitability at the expense of long-term growth; difficulty in handling complex abstract environments; and the betrayal by senior management of its leadership ethos and financial responsibilities. US society enjoyed socioeconomic growth, but the Federal Reserve and the Securities & Exchange Commission are still yet to develop as 'institutions of foresight.'