The human nature of failure & resiliency
summary
Distills roughly 3,500 pages of failure research into a 40-minute checklist of concrete tactics: pre-mortem and post-mortem prompts, how to list and verify assumptions, checkpoints and exit criteria, spinning risky work into isolated experiments, and creating psychological safety. Cites specific examples (Deepwater Horizon, Challenger), a 205-item bibliography, and practical questions to ask teams. Watch if wanting actionable steps and scripts to reduce latent errors and make experiments survivable; skip if preferring deep original research or tool demos.
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chapters (8)
- 0:00Start
- 10:10often based on incorrect or invalid information
- 11:19often stem from poor problem definition
- 13:01Unquestioned assumptions become fact in the minds of the hearers
- 18:32Is it organised around processes?
- 20:05Punishment for failures just compounds the cost of failures
- 25:03Inability/reluctance to pull the plug (Sunk Cost Fallacy)
- 32:31Evolution requires failure. it's a constant series of "works for now" solutions
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