What it is
Arthur C. Clarke said there are two reasons we fail to anticipate the future: failure of imagination and failure of nerve. The more common one is nerve. We have the facts, we can imagine the conclusion, and we still won’t say it, because a bold prediction could look foolish later.
So our forecasts come out flat: a slightly tweaked version of today.
How it shows up for me
I’ve done it at work: seen where something was clearly going and softened it into “we should keep an eye on this.” Now I try to say the bold version, label it as a prediction, and let the skeptics come.