Hiding Hand Principle
The idea that when a person decides to take on a project, the ignorance of future obstacles allows the person to rationally choose to undertake the project, and once it is underway the person will creatively overcome the obstacles because it is too late to abandon the project.
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Origin
Proposed by development economist Albert O. Hirschman in his 1967 book Development Projects Observed, based on case studies of World Bank–funded projects. Hirschman noticed that many successful projects would never have been started if participants had fully understood the challenges ahead — and that this beneficial ignorance was itself a kind of hidden hand, a play on Adam Smith's famous metaphor.
Updated February 22, 2026