The awareness of the ambiguity of one’s highest achievements (as well as one’s deepest failures) is a definite symptom of maturity.
—Paul Tillich (1886–1965)
Chapter 1
Failure
Fail better.
—Samuel Beckett,“Worstward Ho,” 1983
Civilizations perish, organisms die, planes crash, buildings crumble, bridges collapse, peaceful nuclear reactors explode, and cars stall. That is, systems fail. The reasons for failure and the impacts of the failure vary; but when systems fail, they bring forth images of incompetence. Should we expect perfection from systems we develop when we ourselves are not perfect?
All man-made systems are based on theories, laws, and hypotheses. Even core physical and biological laws contain implicit assumptions that reflect ...
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