Survivorship bias is an error in logic. We make this error when we emphasize whatever “survives” a selection process. So we overlook whatever did not survive, because it’s no longer visible.
How often do we discount, or even conceal our mistakes because of how they made us look? How often do we discard rough drafts, or pattern ourselves after someone else who “succeeded?”
A failure is the invisible cornerstone of our ascendancy. A scar is the often invisible survivor of a wound. Only we know the journey from then to now, and every step of that journey is real.
Our experience – all of it – is the most reliable bias there is, whether we succeed or not. Choose you, drink deep, and savor it. It’s the best medicine there is.
Scott Plate
