• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Farnam Street Logo

Farnam Street

Mastering the best of what other people have already figured out

  • Articles
  • Newsletter
  • Podcast
  • Books
  • Courses
  • Log In
  • Become a Member

Failure

Why You Should Practice Failure

We learn valuable lessons when we experience failure and setbacks. Most of us wait for those failures to happen to us, however, instead of seeking them out. But deliberately making mistakes can give …

Continue readingWhy You Should Practice Failure

Turning Towards Failure

Our resistance to thinking about failure is especially curious in light of the fact that failure is so ubiquitous. ‘Failure is the distinguishing feature of corporate life,’ writes the economist Paul …

Continue readingTurning Towards Failure

How Complex Systems Fail

A bit of a preface to this post. Please read the definition of Antifragile first. While the article below is interesting, the reader should read with a critical mind. Complexity ‘solved’ …

Continue readingHow Complex Systems Fail

Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error

“It infuriates me to be wrong when I know I’m right.” — Molière *** “Why is it so fun to be right?” That’s the opening line from Kathryn Schulz’ excellent book …

Continue readingBeing Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error

Goal Induced Blindness

In 1996 a disaster of historic proportions happened at the peak of Mount Everest. In the entire climbing season of 1996, fifteen climbers died. Eight of those deaths took place on a single day. …

Continue readingGoal Induced Blindness

Atul Gawande: Why We Fail

“Failures of ignorance we can forgive. If the knowledge of the best thing to do in a given situation does not exist, we are happy to have people simply make their best effort. But if the …

Continue readingAtul Gawande: Why We Fail

Robert Greene: The Two Kinds of Failure and Why They Matter

“It is a curse to have everything go right on your first attempt. You will fail to question the element of luck.” *** This excellent passage from Robert Greene‘s book Mastery …

Continue readingRobert Greene: The Two Kinds of Failure and Why They Matter

Daniel Dennett: How to Make Mistakes

In Intuition Pumps And Other Tools for Thinking, Daniel Dennett, one of the world’s leading philosophers offers a trove of mind-stretching thought experiments, which he calls …

Continue readingDaniel Dennett: How to Make Mistakes

10 Reasons Countries Fall Apart

“States don’t fail overnight. The seeds of of their destruction are sown deep within their political institutions.” Is it culture, weather, or Geography? What about war or some …

Continue reading10 Reasons Countries Fall Apart

The Bias Against Creativity: Why People Desire But Reject Creative Ideas

You’d be hard-pressed to find a person or organization who says they’re opposed to creativity. It’s seen as an unequivocally good thing. Everyone wants to have creative ideas. But we don’t always …

Continue readingThe Bias Against Creativity: Why People Desire But Reject Creative Ideas

17 Management Lessons from Ray Dalio

Ray Dalio, the sixty-one-year-old founder of Bridewater Associates, the world’s biggest hedge fund, offers the following management advice. Dalio says “Taken together, these principles are meant to …

Continue reading17 Management Lessons from Ray Dalio

An Introduction to the Mental Model of Redundancy (with examples)

“The reliability that matters is not the simple reliability of one component of a system, but the final reliability of the total control system.” — Garrett Hardin *** We learn from …

Continue readingAn Introduction to the Mental Model of Redundancy (with examples)

Seth Klarman: The Forgotten Lessons of 2008

In this excerpt from his annual letter, investing great Seth Klarman describes 20 lessons from the financial crisis which, he says, “were either never learned or else were immediately forgotten by …

Continue readingSeth Klarman: The Forgotten Lessons of 2008

Discover What You’re Missing

Get the weekly email full of actionable ideas and insights you can use at work and home.


As seen on:

Forbes logo
New York Times logo
Wall Street Journal logo
The Economist logo
Financial Times logo
Farnam Street Logo

© 2023 Farnam Street Media Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Proudly powered by WordPress. Hosted by Pressable. See our Privacy Policy.

  • Speaking
  • Sponsorship
  • About
  • Support
  • Education

We’re Syrus Partners.
We buy amazing businesses.


Farnam Street participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising commissions by linking to Amazon.