The future in the mirror and behind it: Scientists and more

Abstract

This paper argues that the framework of entrepreneurs-as-scientists, portraying entrepreneurs as tasked with making precise and reliable inferences, and expressed in certain mathematical language, trivializes entrepreneurial practice. I highlight the challenges that arise from replacing the abstract notations of mathematical language with names from ordinary language of entrepreneurship. Co-opting of ordinary language for mathematical purposes distorts our understanding of business ideas, venture development, and entrepreneurial processes. At stake are different conceptions of the future. One creates the future within language, the other accepts that the future lies outside of language as an untameable realm of perpetual novelty.